TRAINER SAYS NO QUARTER ON SWITCH.Byline: KEVIN MODESTI Horse Racing horse racing, trials of speed involving two or more horses. It includes races among harnessed horses with one of two particular gaits, among saddled Thoroughbreds (or, less frequently, quarterhorses) on a flat track, or among saddled horses over a turf course with After watching D. Wayne Lukas Darrell Wayne Lukas (born September 2, 1935 in Antigo, Wisconsin) is a former educator who became one of the most successful horse trainers in American Thoroughbred horse racing history and a U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee. and Bob Baffert Bob Baffert (born January 13, 1953 in Nogales, Arizona) is an American horse owner and trainer. He graduated from the University of Arizona's Racetrack Management Program with a Bachelor of Science degree. switch breeds and go on to fame and fortune, some people might have the idea quarter-horse racing quarter-horse racing Racing of quarter horses. It originated among British settlers in Virginia shortly after Jamestown was established in 1607. The course was traditionally a quarter-mile (400 m); today there are 11 officially sanctioned races, ranging from 220 to 870 yd is nothing more than a farm system for thoroughbred trainers. If that were the case, then Paul Jones Paul Jones can refer to:
Instead, Jones remains at Los Alamitos Los Alamitos (lôs ăləmē`təs, lŏs), city (1990 pop. 11,676), Orange co., NE of Long Beach, S Calif., in a suburban area; inc. 1960. Los Alamitos Racetrack and U.S. military installations are nearby. Race Course in Orange County, happily devoted to quarter horses like the multiple entries he is preparing for tonight's Los Alamitos Million Futurity and Saturday night's Champion of Champions. It's not minor-league thoroughbred racing, it's major-league quarter-horse racing. ``I grew up in the quarter-horse business, and I've been around them all my life,'' said Jones, 37, a Hawthorne native who is the son of the late trainer Paul Jones. ``I love the quarter horses. It's just what you know.'' Jones compares the excitement of quarter-horse racing, with its all-out sprints up a straightaway straight·a·way adj. 1. Extending in a straight line or course without a curve or turn. 2. Unhesitating; immediate: a straightaway denial. n. , to the thrill of the 100-meter dash in the Olympics. But that's only part of his answer to those who ask why he doesn't try to parlay his success under the lights at Los Alamitos into stardom at Hollywood Park Hollywood Park may be several places:
``I think that training quarter horses is a good learning experience, and that's why Lukas and Baffert went on to become great (thoroughbred) trainers,'' Jones said on the phone from Los Alamitos, where he went into Thursday's races needing three victories to break his own track record of 163 wins in a season. ``I think I could go over there and do well. But I would have to start back on the bottom again and work my way up. You need a lot more clients with a lot more money over there. ``I don't think the training of horses themselves is any more difficult than over here. But it takes a lot more dough.'' There's also a lot more dough to be won in thoroughbred racing if you're good: Leading North American North American named after North America. North American blastomycosis see North American blastomycosis. North American cattle tick see boophilusannulatus. thoroughbred trainer Bobby Frankel's barn has earned $17.8 million in 2002, of which Frankel probably banks about 10 percent. Baffert's barn is next at $11.6 million. Lukas is ninth at $5.8 million. Jones will be the nation's leading quarter-horse trainer for the first time this year with more than $2 million in earnings. It looks like peanuts unless you compare it with the earnings of less established thoroughbred trainers. ``In California, there's probably 400 or 500 thoroughbred trainers, and I'll bet you can't count on two hands the number who have made that much money,'' Jones said. It would take a rich client - or multiple rich clients - to bankroll bank·roll n. 1. A roll of paper money. 2. Informal One's ready cash. tr.v. bank·rolled, bank·roll·ing, bank·rolls Informal a move to thoroughbreds. That's how it happened for Lukas, who trained the great Dash for Cash Dash For Cash was an American Quarter Horse racehorse and an influential sire in the Quarter Horse breed.
``If I had an offer I couldn't refuse, it wouldn't be out of the question,'' Jones said. ``But most of my clients are 100 percent quarter horse. I wouldn't want to let them down by leaving and going over there. As good as I'm going, I wouldn't want to let everything I've worked hard for here go.'' Jones is on his way to leading the nation in quarter-horse winners for the fourth time in five years. At Los Alamitos, he led one-time perennial champion Blane Schvaneveldt by more than 40 wins with eight days left in the season. The money won't be short this weekend, the biggest of the long Los Alamitos meet. The Los Alamitos Million's purse of $1,313,700, pumped up by the fees owners paid to nominate their 2-year-olds to nine trial races Nov. 29, makes it the richest horse race - of any breed - in California this year. The Champion of Champions, the most prestigious race for older quarter horses, is worth $500,000. Jones trains - and part-owns - the 15-1 entry of Lock to Load and Dealadash for the Million, challenging 4-5 favorite Meteoric me·te·or·ic adj. 1. Of, relating to, or formed by a meteoroid. 2. Of or relating to the earth's atmosphere. 3. in the 400-yard race. He could have three horses in the Champion of Champions, with 4-1 Whosleavingwho, 20-1 Miami Cartel and an also-eligible in 30-1 Chiarascuro. ``If I can light the board with 'em (finishing fourth or better), I think I'd be doing good,'' Jones said. He doesn't have to be the next Baffert or Lukas. It's good enough to be the current Paul Jones. CAPTION(S): box Box: OUT OF THE GATE |
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