Fillies Blue Violet, Divine Dawn to Run on Black-Eyed Susan Day Undercard

BALTIMORE, MD., 05/13/15 – Trainer Larry Jones’ enthusiasm for his sport and his job are unfettered - an amazing thing, really, when you think about the man. He has had wondrous successes, yes; but cruel turns of fate, as well.

“I’m back,” he said. “I had died. That’s what they told me, but I don’t remember it.”

Jones will be at Pimlico Race Course this weekend to run 4-year-old filly Blue Violet in the $150,000 Allaire DuPont Distaff Stakes (G3) and 3-year-old Divine Dawn in the $150,000 Adena Springs Miss Preakness (G3), each part of Friday’s 14-race Black-Eyed Susan Day program.

If he continues to feel well, Jones may stick around Saturday as well, as he might have a horse running on the undercard of the 140^th Preakness Stakes (G1). Jones has a history in the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown, finishing third with Hard Spun in 2007 and 10^th with Friesen Fire in 2009.

“Lord willing, I’ll stay for Saturday,” he said. “That’s the plan.”

In this latest return, Jones, 58, is back from a terrible fall he took on Easter weekend, April 19, 2014. The morning before the holiday, he was riding his 2-year-old trainee, Atta Boy Ace, and the horse got startled on the way back to the barn. He began bucking and Jones, after what he thinks had been a pretty strong ride, finally flew off and landed on his head. His wife, Cindy, found him face down in the dirt.

Jones knows all this because he’s been told by his wife. He doesn’t remember any of it.

“The fall did about kill me,” Jones said. “But, God had a hand in this. And it was Easter Sunday in the hospital. It’s not the biggest miracle ever done on Easter.”

On that Saturday, right after the fall, hospital tests showed massive bleeding on his brain and between the brain and skull. The next day, tests done moments before he was about to be taken to surgery showed no blood. The operation was cancelled.

“I’m not saying it was or wasn’t a miracle,” Jones said. “But, I know God had his hand on it.”

Jones is still coping with the aftermath of the fall, in which he suffered crack ribs, a fractured wrist and bruised lung, and recurring bouts of dizziness. As the travels this comeback trail, he continues to put much faith in God.

Jones couldn’t do much of anything for five weeks after the fall, and when he came back to the racetrack and considered getting back up on his exercise pony, he realized he was afraid.  At 6-feet and 180 pounds, Jones is one of few trainers who actually rides his horses during workouts and if he was afraid to mount the pony, it would change much of the way he ran his operation.

“I had so much dizziness,” he said. “Five weeks and it still wasn’t gone. It was hard enough walking in a straight line and I was afraid. But God tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Fear not. Get back on the horse.’ Well, do you live it or just talk it? So I got on the horse and the dizziness went away.

“An hour after I got off the horse, it came back and I thought, ‘Well, if I ride for 23 hours a day, I’ll be OK,” he laughed. “But, it kept getting better. I’m good now, but if I go two or three days without riding the dizziness still comes back. It’s strange, but it’s all in God’s hand.”

He still has some trouble coping in crowds and he’s cut his work day back significantly.

“My crew still says I’m not right,” he said. “But life goes on and as far as training the horses, that’s OK. I just don’t multi-task well now. This is the toughest deal I’ve ever had. It put the skids on me.”

Coming back from the fall hasn’t been like coming back from his year of retirement in 2010, though that too was brought on by an illness – one most people weren’t aware of.

He had been through a difficult time in 2008, as his wonderful filly Eight Belles was euthanized almost immediately after finishing second in the Kentucky Derby.  She had freakishly broken both front ankles while galloping out after crossing the finish line and couldn’t stand. There was no choice in what to do. She could not be saved.

Jones was tormented by the loss of the filly, hounded by the media afterward, and contemplated retiring then, but he said when he finally put the training operations in the hands of his wife and stepped away, it was not because of the Eight Belles episode.

“The media constantly bugging you doesn’t help,” he said. “But Eight Belles wasn’t the reason, to be honest.  I wasn’t remembering things. It was discovered that I had a high amount of aluminum in my body. A side effect of that is Alzheimer’s.  I thought I was going crazy and I didn’t want to go nuts in front of the general public. So I retired and it gave me time to detox the aluminum out. That was the big reason for my quitting.  When I came back from that, I was feeling pretty good.”

A year after the retirement, his wife said she wasn’t enjoying training the horses, either, and they thought about what to do.  Owner Rick Porter was trying to persuade them to take his filly Havre de Grace and they decided to stick with the business, but downsize their operation, cutting their 100 horses to 55.

Under Jones’ guidance Havre de Grace became Horse of the Year in 2011, one of many filly success stories Jones has written over the past eight years or so. Besides Eight Belles there were Proud Spell, who won the Kentucky Oaks (G1) in 2008, and Believe You Can, who won it in 2012. Payton d’Oro won the Pimlico’s Black-Eyed Susan (G2) in 2009. Hard Spun, piloted by local rider Mario Pino, was second in the 2007 Kentucky Derby prior to the Preakness.

Earlier this month, Jones won his third Kentucky Oaks with Lovely Maria while also training third-place finisher I’m a Chatterbox.

“The only surprise there was that we weren’t first and second,” Jones said. “I guess that win is my biggest since returning from the fall.”

Asked if the latest Oaks win has special significance after returning from his fall, Jones thought for a moment and then said he sees every day as special.

“As I’ve been told, I died [during] the MRI,” he said. “Every day after that is a blessing.”