NEWS
Road to the Triple Crown:
Jones not going quietly
Posted: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 7:52 PM
OLD FASHIONED AND LARRY JONES
Jeff Coady/Coady Photography
by Jeff Lowe
Trainer Larry Jones is about eight months from walking away from racing, and you would never know it from his pace or his ideal position with two top contenders for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1).
“The Cowboy” is not going quietly with a foot out the door.
Jones began his week with an extreme example of the kind of schedule that has contributed to his decision to take at least a breather this fall following the Breeders’ Cup World Championships.
On Sunday morning, Jones was in Hot Springs, Arkansas, to oversee Old Fashioned’s final workout in preparation for the Rebel Stakes (G2) on Saturday at Oaklawn Park.
Jones stayed for the races and left on Sunday night with a van of horses bound for Fair Grounds. Of course, Jones was behind the wheel for the nine-hour trip.
On Monday morning, both Jones and his wife and assistant, Cindy, were on hand at Fair Grounds to supervise final workouts for Saturday’s Louisiana Derby (G2) card, including a bullet drill by Lecomte (G3) and Risen Star (G3) Stakes winner Friesan Fire.
Running on about a half-hour of sleep, Larry Jones attended a Fair Grounds luncheon late that morning in which post positions were drawn for the track’s signature card.
By afternoon, Jones was on the road back to Oaklawn, where he will be this weekend.
“After those road trips, nothing is going to be good enough to make me not want to retire,” Jones joked on Tuesday.
Rick Porter, the owner of Old Fashioned and co-owner of Friesan Fire, still chuckles in wonder at Jones’s horsemanship.
“He’s almost like a horse whisperer,” Porter said. “He does a lot of things differently than everybody else. He has a way of training these horses by getting on them himself and fixing some of the deficiencies or little idiosyncrasies, whether they don’t want to split horses or stay down on the rail or switch leads. He has a way of fixing that himself.”
Porter is excited about the prospects of the documentary that Brad and John Hennegan are currently filming about the Joneses, both at Fair Grounds and at Oaklawn. The Hennegans received an Eclipse Award for their previous film, The First Saturday in May.
“All the people that we need to attract to the racetracks can relate to Larry more than any other trainer, I think,” Porter said. “And he puts some fun in the game.”
Porter and Jones have already had plenty of fun with Old Fashioned, who is undefeated and widely considered the top prospect for the Derby off his clear victories in the Remsen (G2) and Southwest (G3) Stakes.
Friesan Fire has excelled with Jones’s decision to add blinkers following a second-place finish in an allowance race in December. Since then, the A.P. Indy colt has fired off victories in the Lecomte (G3) and Risen Star (G3) Stakes. Porter owns Friesan Fire in partnership with Vinery Stables.
“Old Fashioned has basically showed he’s got the right frame of mind for everything,” Jones said while comparing the two colts. “He’s a very competitive horse, he just seems like he knows what he needs to do, and what the number one desire of the game is.
“Friesan Fire, early in his career, was basically satisfied to be a herd animal. He had the talent; we knew it was there. But trying to get him to want to be number one and feel like he was number one was just something that he didn’t feel like he had to prove to all the horses. He was satisfied just to get to go out and play with the other guys. That is all turning around for him now.”
Over-under odds in Las Vegas peg the duration of Jones’s retirement at around three months, and he admits he has no idea how long it will take for him to go stir crazy.
But his plan and objectives are resolute, a year after hitting rock bottom with the death of Eight Belles, who broke down and was euthanized after finishing second in the 2008 Kentucky Derby.
“We hope we go out in style,” Jones said. “This is the thing. Hopefully, we’ll go out the right way.”
The San Felipe Stakes (G2) and Tampa Bay Derby (G3) are the two other major preps on the schedule on Saturday.
Pioneerof the Nile will be a heavy favorite in the San Felipe, which picked up a surprise addition in Kelly Leak when entries were drawn on Wednesday.
Hello Broadway and General Quarters figure to be the top two choices in the Tampa Bay Derby, which will be drawn on Thursday. Trainer Doug O’Neill plans to supplement Justdontcallmejeri, who finished third behind Kelly Leak in a turf allowance race at Santa Anita Park on February 22. Victor Espinoza is flying in for the mount.
To view THOROUGHBRED TIMES's Road to the Triple Crown website, click here.
Jeff Lowe is a THOROUGHBRED TIMES staff writer
