Jones Doesn’t Need to Keep Up

Trainers Wayne Lukas, in the late 1970s, and Bob Baffert, in the early 1990s, made spectacularly successful transitions from the quarter horses to the thoroughbred game.

But don’t look for Paul Jones, the dominant trainer at Los Alamitos for the last six years, to head for the bigger purses that the thoroughbreds regularly offer like Lukas and Baffert did.

“I love quarter horses,” said Jones, 38. “I’m happy where I am.”

Jones has hung up some record numbers, but there was nothing to compare with last weekend, when he won three of the four stakes during Los Alamitos’ biggest three days of the year. After a disqualification, Jones’ A Regal Choice was moved up to first in the $1.3-million Los Alamitos Million Futurity on Friday; 24 hours later, he won the Champion of Champions with The Down Side; and then Sunday he won the $155,950 Southern California Derby with Deefirst.

All three of Jones’ winners were longshots: A Regal Choice at 13-1; The Down Side, 15-1; and Deefirst, 27-1. A $2 parlay on the three horses would have paid more than $50,000.

Jones missed a sweep of the four Los Alamitos races when he ran second with Available Credit in the $175,000 Marathon National Stakes.

Although Jones is the first quarter horse trainer to pass the $4-million mark in annual purses, that figure pales alongside the totals of the leading thoroughbred conditioners. Bobby Frankel leads the money list with almost $19 million -- a record -- and there are 19 other trainers whose horses have earned $4 million or more.

Still, it doesn’t sound as if Jones will be budging from his fiefdom in Orange County.

“Anything’s possible, I guess,” he said. “But it would have to be an offer that I couldn’t refuse. It would take some kind of an unbelievable offer. I just wouldn’t want to get into something where I’d have to start at the bottom again.”

With about 100 horses in training at Los Alamitos, Jones was able to flood last weekend’s stakes races with contenders. He started four horses in the Million, and sent out five of the nine starters in the Derby. Jones’ horses took three of the first four spots in the Derby.

“You don’t want to win a million-dollar race [on a foul],” Jones said. “But the stewards made the right call.”

In 1998, when Jones led the Los Alamitos standings in wins, he broke a title grip that Blane Schvaneveldt had held since 1991. Schvaneveldt’s purse record of $3.5 million had stood since 1984.

Jones has built up a formidable client list that would be difficult to duplicate if he became a thoroughbred trainer. As for goals, he can always look to 2004, and aim for the $5-million mark.

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Only five horses are entered for the $362,000 Hollywood Futurity, which will be run Saturday, the next-to-last day of the Hollywood Park season. Sunday’s closing-day feature is the Hollywood Starlet for 2-year-old fillies.

Lion Heart, six-length winner of the Hollywood Prevue on Nov. 15, will be an odds-on favorite again, and his trainer Patrick Biancone, hopes that another convincing victory will boost his colt’s chance in the Eclipse Awards voting.

Saint Afleet, making his stakes debut, drew the rail for the 1 1/16-mile race. He’ll be ridden by Alex Solis, who will tie the retired Laffit Pincay for most Futurity wins if he rides the race winner for the fourth time. Solis last won the Futurity with Swiss Yodeler in 1996.

The complete field, in post-position order: Saint Afleet, Solis; St Averil, Tyler Baze; That’s An Outrage, Gary Stevens; Lion Heart, Mike Smith; and Quiet Cash, David Flores.

Other than Lion Heart, That’s An Outrage is the only horse in the field with stakes experience. That’s An Outrage broke his maiden, on the sixth try, at Santa Anita on Oct. 12, and two weeks later he ran seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

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Victory U.S.A. will be a heavy favorite in the Starlet.... Neither Pat Valenzuela nor Victor Espinoza rode a winner Thursday. Going into the final three days of the meet, Valenzuela holds a one-win edge over Julie Krone and leads Espinoza by two wins. Krone, injured in a spill last Friday, is sidelined indefinitely.