Trainer Jones Has the Horses to Help Put Him in the Big Time

Trainer Paul C. Jones has had a few successes at Los Alamitos Race Course but hasn’t really hit the big time. Hey, he points out: I’m only 31 years old and there’s plenty of time left in my career.

But with a stable topping 75 horses this season, including the fastest 2-year-olds at the track, it could just be a matter of time before Jones, who ranked fourth in the nation in victories last season, gets into the winner’s circle with a big purse.

“I’ve won some pretty nice stakes races, but not any real big ones,” Jones said. “But I’ve got some really good 2-year-olds I’m high on and also some nice older horses.”

Headlining Jones’ barn so far has been Dayton, which surprised early favorite Peyote Chick in posting the fastest time in qualifying for Friday’s $221,900 Kindergarten Futurity.

Dayton won by 1 1/4 lengths over Peyote Chick in the fifth of eight trial races May 9.

“That’s a nice horse,” rival trainer Bruce Hawkinson said. “It’s a pretty good 2-year-old. The best we’ve seen so far this year.”

Jones, nephew to 1963 Indianapolis 500 champion Parnelli Jones, was born in Hawthorne and raised in Norco. But if you ask him where he grew up, he’ll tell you it was around the barns at Los Alamitos. His father, Paul T. Jones, began training horses at Los Alamitos after his sprint car racing career ended after several injuries. Paul T. often brought his son along with him.

“I would come in on the weekends and help around the barns,” the younger Jones said. “I also came to a lot of the races.”

By the time he was out of high school, Paul C. was spending most of his time helping his father. In the mid-1980s he spent a year as an agent for jockeys, but when Paul T. needed heart surgery shortly thereafter, his son took over the business.

It wasn’t until 1994 that the younger Jones picked up his first stakes victory, in the Shue Fly Handicap, a Grade 3 event.

Dayton presents Jones with a pleasant surprise. The trainer picked up the gelding for only $5,000 at a sale last season. He ran his first race in April and won a victory that Jones called “very impressive.” His 17.67 time in the trials was impressive, too, but still there are doubters.

“Everyone considers him a fluke because of his breeding,” Jones said. “He’s not one of your top-bred horses and it was an inexpensive sale. But I really like that horse.”

Only time will tell if Dayton, who is owned by Diane Wolfe, will be the first to claim a big stakes prize for Jones. If Dayton breaks down, Jones says he has about a half dozen other 2-year-olds that might do the trick, and he plans to start getting them on the track next month.

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This is the time of the season when trainers poke their heads outside their barn doors, peek at each other’s starters and try to figure out which horses have the best chances.

Dayton has raced to the front of the pack, but other than that, picking the top mounts this year isn’t that easy.

“We have a bunch of bullets, but not that many dynamites this season,” trainer Jaime Gomez said.

Champion trainer Blane Schvaneveldt agrees.

“Just like everyone else, I have a bunch of 2-year-olds,” Schvaneveldt said. “My best horses, like My Debut and Templetonian, aren’t even on the grounds yet.”

Hawkinson said generally the best horses don’t show up until July or August. But even at that, he admits, pickings appear a bit thin so far. “Connie Hall has a couple of good 2-year-olds, but there hasn’t been a real lot of good ones. There never really is quite yet.”

Hall, of course, has Peyote Chick and Outlaw Dasher.

One filly who has raised a few eyebrows, though, has been Champagne Lane, winner of six of her last seven starts. The Utah-bred 3-year-old is being handled by trainer Donna McArthur, who had the top 3-year-old filly in the nation last season in Dashing Folly.

Some around the track are wondering if McArthur is on the same course as last season. Champagne Lane, like Dashing Folly, received very little attention before her victory in the $109,840 La Primera Del Ano Derby this month.

As she did with Dashing Folly, McArthur hired veteran Texas jockey Tami Purcell, who guided Champagne Lane to victory from the ninth post position.

“[Champagne Lane] is a pleasure to train because she works so hard,” McArthur said. “I don’t think she has made a single mistake since I began working with her in January.”

Champagne Lane was bred to Dash Ta Fame and also received an embryo transplant in the off-season. She had earnings of only $80,000 prior to the La Primera.

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Jockey Kip Didericksen, 31, has decided to retire after battling weight problems. He has been in Idaho researching business options. This is the second retirement by Didericksen, who was the American Quarter Horse Assn. Champion Jockey in 1986 and from 1989-92.

He left racing at the end of the 1992 season after directing Refrigerator to the title in the Champion of Champions. He came out of retirement in 1995 and was the regular rider last season aboard 2-year-old champion Uncas.

Notes

Blushing By, runner-up to Dashing Folly in last season’s Champion of Champions, may be shipped to Los Alamitos this week but definitely will not be ready in time for the June 13 trials to the Vessels Maturity. Bruce Hawkinson said Blushing By, considered one of the favorites in that race, is recovering from complications after being brought to foal in the off-season. She just recently began galloping and probably won’t race until July. Blushing By was bred to Raise A Secret, one of the top stallions on the market, and the foal is expected to bring a hefty price. . . . 1995 champion horse Winalota Cash, and new rider Oscar Ortega, clinched a spot in the $250,000, Nov. 1 Challenge Championship at Los Alamitos by winning a qualifying race in New Mexico. Ortega replaced Los Alamitos jockey Billy Peterson, who retired at the end of last season . . . Uncas and Los Alamitos Million winner Corona Cartel, who has been recovering from ankle surgery, are slated to make their debuts in the Sires Cup trails Saturday.