Larry Jones Says He's Done After 2009 - Is this Just Adios and Not Goodby?

Larry Jones has informed the Louisiana Times-Picayune that he's closing up shop as a public trainer after Breeders Cup 2009. His decision is definite. The good news is that nobody besides Larry Jones believes his decision will stick.

The popular and colorful 52-year old, famous as the trainer of Hard Spun, Eight Belles, Proud Spell, and this year's potential three year old star, Old Fashioned, talks of retirement as if he's overdue for the rocking chair, but the real problem is that Jones has become worn out by the price of success. As the demand for his services have increased and his operations have expanded, Jones was becoming a Todd Pletcher-style trainer/racing manager/executive - an achievement about which most trainers can only dream. Jones hates it.

Larry Jones is seriously hands-on. This means getting on his horses-in-training himself. Trailer the horse himself, drive the trailer too. Know his exercise riders and grooms not only by name (Deidre and Corey), but be familiar with and supportive of their individual career ambitions. (Both aspire to be trainers some day.) This homespun style of operations was going the way of the dodo as Jones' barns filled with more and more top quality runners. Hard as he works, he can't be everywhere at once or do everything. But he doesn't feel like Larry Jones unless he can. The big time has made Jones feel old and tired.

Jones also sounds frustrated by the expectations of some of his owners. He doesn't see himself as a star, but when the owner of Sweet Hope, second in the Test Stakes at Saratoga this summer, complained, I suspect the owner wasn't mad at how his filly raced, but that Larry couldn't be present to personally saddle Sweet Hope. As Larry's fame and popularity have grown, he's become more than a trainer -- he's a status symbol. It's a safe bet that concept is completely outside Larry Jones' ken.

Rather than become querulous, hostile or curt like Barclay Tagg can sometimes be under similar pressure, Jones is just frank - he's stressed. He's uncomfortable. And he blames his own limitations. Of course once Larry has rested up and refreshed himself, everyone expects he'll end up coming back. He's too young, too good, and too popular not to be drawn back in. And he cares too much about the horses.

It's likely that his sabbatical will only make him more in demand once he returns. If I were an owner I'd want Larry training my horses. If Larry needed some common sense from me, I'd try to provide it if that's what it took. The best case scenario is that after wrapping up another successful season in 2009, Larry goes fishing, spends time with the grandkids and generally enjoys a break from the pressures of the hurly burly. Then he'll come back small, possibly family-style, training race horses owned by himself and his wife Cindy (who is also a trainer). From there is it really likely he'll refuse his best client and good friend, Rick Porter, who owned Eight Belles and now owns Old Fashioned? I see him back where he started in no time, this time on his own terms.