"Welcome to Cannery Row!"
That's how Gary Jones greeted a turf writer visiting the barn one bright morning at Santa Anita Park, what seems like ages ago. The visitor knew Jones was not referencing John Steinbeck, even though the trainer might have stumbled on some American literature during a flirtation with higher education at Pasadena City College. In fact, Jones was in his familiar gear of manic self-deprecation, halfway apologizing for the clutter of hanging bandages, makeshift pens, and controlled chaos of a hard-working Thoroughbred stable. There would be time enough later to pretty up the shed row and calm the goats. Right now, it was next set up and out, with Jones on the muscle, leading the way and firing off instructions to riders who had to keep pace.
Gary Jones, who died at home in Del Mar on the evening of Oct. 11 at age 76, was as hard on himself as he was kind to others. He was the man with the talk show comeback and the snappy one-liner long before Bob Baffert took the stage. It was exhausting, though, sticking with Jones through nearly a quarter of a century of high stakes competition, turned up to eleven, smoking those skinny brown cigarettes, raising a family, and surviving rehab, a heart attack, and a demanding father, the leading trainer Farrell Jones, whose well-earned nickname was Wild Horse.
Jones packed a lot into just 20 full seasons of training and part of two others in his own name. He gets credit for 1,465 winners from 7,900 starters who earned more than $52 million. Along the way he won 15 meet titles at Santa Anita, Hollywood Park, and Del Mar. His 233 stakes victories included such grade 1 gems as the Pacific Classic, Santa Anita Handicap, Mother Goose Stakes, Marlboro Cup, Beverly D., NYRA Mile, and the Hollywood Futurity.
As assistant to his father, Gary did not receive official credit for running the stable in part of 1974 and most of 1975, when Farrell Jones was sidelined with a heart attack and eventually forced to retire. In 1996, the son faced a similar health challenge and decided that discretion was the better part of valor.
"I could keep training or keep living, but I couldn't do both," Jones said once while looking back.
In retirement, living in Del Mar with his wife, Joan, Gary played the stock market with vigor and golf with pals who knew Gary was good for an entertaining round. He maintained a vested interest in the racing game through his sons, David Jones, an attorney with racetrack clients, and Marty Jones, who stepped into his dad's shoes as a head trainer.
Away from the track, Jones also got used to seeing his name on the Hall of Fame ballot over a string of years, without success, until he finally was elected in 2014, joining his most famous runner, Best Pal. He spent much of his acceptance speech thanking his family, his close friend and patron John C. Mabee, and such former assistants as Rafael Becera, Donn Luby, Michael Smith, and Ben Cecil.
The Hall of Fame honor afforded racing fans a chance to savor some of Jones's greatest hits, a testament to the variety of quality horses he handled through the years.
In the summer of 1991, Jones took over the training of John C. Mabee's Kentucky Derby runner-up Best Pal and won the inaugural running of the Pacific Classic at Del Mar. Later, Jones and Best Pal added the Charles H. Strub Stakes (G1), Santa Anita Handicap, Oaklawn Handicap (G1), and Hollywood Gold Cup (G1).
Jones corralled the headstrong Irish mare Kostroma long enough for her to set a world's record of 1:43.92 for a mile and one-eighth on turf in the 1991 running of the Las Palmas Handicap (G2T). She went on to win races like the Yellow Ribbon Invitational (G1T) and the Beverly D.
Channeling such old school mentors as Buster Millerick and W.L. Proctor, Jones kicked off what turned out to be Turkoman's 1986 Eclipse Award championship season with a win in the six-furlong Tallahassee Handicap at Hialeah. Three weeks later, Jones produced Turkoman to take the historic Widener Handicap (G1) at a mile and a quarter.
Trainers are known not only for the horses they train, but also the people who give them those horses. Besides Mabee, the list of patrons who entrusted their considerable equine investments to the care of Jones and his crew reads like a Who's Who of the sport's Fortune 500, among them Sheikh Mohammed, Allen Paulson, Art and Jack Preston, Corbin Robertson, Mike Rutherford, Frank Stronach, and Brereton Jones.
In recent years, Jones was in failing health complicated by the onset of dementia. When the end came Sunday night he was surrounded by his family, who have chosen to honor his memory with a private gathering of racetrack friends. For Gary Jones, they'd better hire a big room.
