ESPN.com - Triple Crown 2000 - Barn notes: Jones not your typical twentysomething

Barn notes: Jones not your typical twentysomething
By Marc Connolly
ABC Sports Online

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Marty Jones was madder than a hornet on Friday morning.

No, it wasn't because his dark bay Hugh Hefner is getting as much love by the sport's aficionados as a paddock-lurking viper. In fact, he believes that coming in as a 50-1 longshot has helped to ease the pressure of competing in his first Belmont Stakes.


	Marty Jones' first Triple Crown horse is Hugh Hefner, a colt that finished sixth at the Preakness Stakes.

What's got him ticked is what went down in the swamps of New Jersey last night.

"I'm so mad, did you know I was supposed to have four tickets for the Stars-Devils game left for me at the gate?" said Jones, shortly before bathing his beautiful colt at Belmont Park. "I got there and they didn't have them. So I had to turn around and come back this way [Long Island] to watch the game."

It's probably for the best. The three-overtime thriller won by the Stars, 1-0, would have left him looking more like Abe Vigoda than a horseman. Not the smartest thing to do during Belmont Week, especially after hanging out in Times Square the night before.

"Besides, if they make it to Game 7, I may stick around and make sure to actually get in to see it," said the ardent Los Angeles Kings fan.

In the meantime, he's got other matters to worry about.

Wearing a faded Abercrombie & Fitch cap and shades with a dark blue button-down shirt and jeans, Jones resembles a has-been frat guy. But that image couldn't be further from the truth. The only guys around the Tappa Kegga houses of the land that are called "Barn rat" are freshmen who have pledgemasters with sense of humors.

Learning the trade from his father, Gary, and grandfather, Farrell, who were both celebrated trainers on the ultra-tough SoCal circuit, training horses is the only job the 28-year-old ever considered. While boys his age in L.A. were running rampant on the hard tops trying to be Magic Johnson, Jones' idol was horse racing legend Charles Whittingham, and, of course, his dad. So Jones truly believes he was born to be in places like Churchill Downs, Pimlico, Saratoga and Belmont each year after starting out as a hot walker before he was old enough to drive.

Now that he's here for the first time and competing in only his second Triple Crown race (Hef finished sixth in the Preakness last month), he's not about to be satisfied walking away with only a T-shirt and decent tan.

"I don't think this horse is a 50-1 shot," said Jones of the Ed Nahem-owned entry. "In the same token, he's not 3-1 either. He's somewhere in between. On paper, he doesn't have a chance, but if he gets the lead -- remember, he hasn't been able to shake loose in his last three races -- and the distance, he can go.

"He dueled at the Preakness, and there is no superior horse here."

And the way the other 10 trainers are talking, it sounds as if they will lay down a red carpet to allow Hef to sprint to the front once he bolts out of Post 10.

"There's absolutely no secret to our strategy," said Jones. We'll put him in the lead, let him go, and see how far he takes us. You just never know.

"But if he doesn't get the lead, I'd say we're in trouble."

Looking for two straight
It's hard not to admire Scotty Schulhofer. At 74, the trainer of 6-1 Postponed walks around with a smile and an apparent zest for life that is seldom seen in men one-quarter his age. But why shouldn't he? It'd be hard to find a career that puts one in the company of some of the earth's most gorgeous creatures in breathtaking places like Belmont Park. Perhaps it takes someone who served as an infantryman in Germany during World War II to appreciate such pleasantries of life.

"This all keeps me going every morning when it's time to get up," said Schulhofer, who started schooling horses in 1943 for trainer Oleg Dubassoff in South Carolina. "Nothing is better than a good horse coupled with breathtaking views."

One of the reasons he speaks with such a take-time-to-smell-the-roses tone is because of the second-life he's in the midst of after being inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1992. Since then, he's saddled two Belmont winners -- Colonial Affair (1993) and Lemon Drop Kid (1999). Though both horses' triumphs were overshadowed by injuries -- Kentucky Derby winner Prairie Bayou's injury on the backstretch forced its owners to humanely destroy the colt in '93 and Triple Crown hopeful Charismatic fractured his left leg near the wire to finish third last year -- Schulhofer believes a victory is a victory. There's no such thing as a tainted win in this business.

"It gives the media something to write about," said the longtime horseman, whose "I Love Lemon Drop Kid" sticker is shown proudly on the rear bumper of his car. "That's really all it is."

While other trainers serve up play-by-plays on how the race will shake up, all Schulhofer will say is that his guess is as good as anyone's for Saturday.

"When the man says, 'Go,' then everything changes," he said. "Anything that people predict ahead of time is a bunch of crap. It's all up to the horse and jockey.

"I just hope we'll be there at the end."

Loving the rail
Both trainer Joe Ortiz and jockey Mike Luzzi are expecting big things out of Appearing Now, who is one of the longshots at 30-1. They believe that drawing Post 1 will allow him to get a good start and get to the middle-of-the-pack position they feel he needs to be in. Once there, Luzzi believes that his horse has a good chance to make some noise, based on his track record of only one out-of-the-money finish in six outings.

"He's proved himself," said Luzzi, who will make his first Belmont mount on Saturday. "Last time he was second to a handicap horse [Ganer in a Belmont Park allowance race at 1 1/16 miles]. He was fifth in the Wood -- and he was closing. You know, people see the wire and they think that's the race, but there's more going on, and my horse galloped out really good.

"[In the Belmont], we'll be in the middle of the pack, just biding our time as the race plays out in front of us, and then maybe we can pick some pieces up; maybe the whole thing."

Charitable jockeys
Ten members of the Belmont Park jockeys' colony decided to bring the sunshine from the Greater Long Island area into the Ronald McDonald House in New Hyde Park on Thursday. They spent over an hour signing autographs, posing for pictures and talking about Saturday's race with several ill children and their families. The riders present included Belmont participants Jerry Bailey (Curule), Mike Luzzi (Appearing Now), Edgar Prado (Postponed) and Mike Smith (Globalize).