Following biographical sketch concerning Farrell W. Jones, former Oneida county man and now one of California’s foremost trainers of race horses, was recently written for the magazine, “The California Horseman”, by N.A. Pogson. Oct. 30, 1958
Mr. Jones is the son of Warren Jones of Malad.
“Pen Portrait of a trainer” A trainer who during the just concluded Del Mar season enjoyed a fabulous continuation of his string of successes at this summer’s Hollywood Park meeting is Farrell Jones, sometimes also referred to as “Wild Horse Jones.”
“I asked him, as a matter of interest, how he came by so romantic a nickname. For one naturally expects that thereby hangs a tale.
“But no! Mr. Jones concedes that he may in his youth, have occasionally been a little wild. And that he was a prominent a figure in racing as Red Pollard, Seabiscuit’s jockey, who first called him “Wild Horse.” Beyond that, however, Mr. Jones professed not to remember any of the circumstances under which the nickname was coined. Neither the “Why?”, nor the “When?”, nor the “Where.”
Right here now be it explained that Mr. Jones stands about 5’9”. He glows with a pink sheen of health, is stocky, powerfully built, a man in his prime. Whereas I alas, am past all physical prowess. And, as between gentlemen, it therefore behooves me to believe Mr. Jones, and to leave the matter at that for the moment. And of then passing it on to my esteemed readers….. If it turns out to be printable, that is.
“Farrell W. Jones is a native of Malad, Idaho. And there is no doubt whatsoever but that he was born, bred and raised amidst the good, clean smell of ammonia which keeps fleas out of a dog’s coat, is, besides lavender or eau de cologne, the only scent a gentleman may sport, and which, moreover, is inoffensive; in contradistinction to the poisonous vapors of the foul distillation which activates mechanical horsepower. For Farrell’s grandfather already raced trotters and pacers all over the middle west. And Farrell’s dad, Warren Jones, who farmed, always kept some running horses.
“That was in the days when Uncle Sam stood stallions with agents who bred them, for a small fee, mostly to cold-blooded mares. Some of the male get the Remount Department would buy for the U.S. Cavalry. If the dams had thoroughbred blood, however, Uncle Sam encouraged s’ leaving their off-springs with their breeders, or for sale, and it was the latter type of horses which were preferably raced.
Wherefore Father Warren kept a half-mile track on his farm where races and rodeos were held. An where young Farrell, incidentally, nine years old at the time, rode his first race. And came in second, too. On a mare called Old Whitey, owned by his father.
Farrell Jones thus picked up quite a lot of knowledge and practical experience of horses in his teens.
At ten he won a three days’ meeting. There were three races a day. And Farrell won them all, riding against Blackfoot Indians and some other old-timers, one of whom was Willy Dennis, who recently trained for Mr. and Mrs. Harry James.
Young Farrell rode in Idaho and Utah until he was about 14. He came to California in 1935, under contract as apprentice jockey to that great breeder and owner, the late Charles Howard.
Ferrell won his first race in the Howard’s silks at Tanforan in 1939, on Claude K, and he continued to ride for Howard until the early part of 1938. Then he went back east, rode at Detroit, Narragansett, Suffolk Downs, Rockingham Park, Saratoga and Empire City, and did pretty well. By the autumn of that year, however, the scales relentlessly showed that he was losing the fight against weight, and forced him to hang up his tack.
“So he went to Malad and helped father Warren farming until 1940. Then he came back to California, worked in a Wilmington shipyard and, after Pearl Harbor, enlisted in the Navy. He served in minesweepers, and a deep-sea diver in the South Pacific, and he came out of the war unscathed if not unscared, particularly when in a typhoon near Okinawa his vessel was damaged enough to be partly disabled.
After his discharge in 1945, Farrell Jones went to work for the firm of John W. Stang, engaged in de-watering, but he also trained two or three quarter horses for Mickey Taylor, of Long Beach. In the following year he went to work for Frank Vessels, as trainer of Vessel’s quarter horses, and thus began a connection that lasted nearly a decade since Farrell stayed with Vessels for nine years. This indicates a pretty solid appreciation on the part of the employer, of whom the employee speaks as the finest any man could wish for.
Vessels at that time mostly matched his quarter horses. A little later, though, Jones also took on Vessel’s small string of thoroughbreds and raced them at fairs, and at Bay Meadows, Tanforan and Golden Gate.
Then, in 1955, Farrell went to Caliente with nine maidens of of Vessels’. All nine were bred and raised by Frank Vessels. And almost all of them won. Among them were Hula-Boola, Captain Bam, Tiny Bam, Brown Bam, Ballet Bam, and War Thistle. Farrell took four of them to Del Mar, but found that he could not do much good with them there.
“After Del Mar, Jones went north, and there operated a public stable at Bay Meadows and Golden Gate Fields. At the former meeting Captain Bam and Tiny Bam both won on opening day, which boosted the reputation of their trainer quite a bit. And so, about the middle of 1956, Jones went to work as trainer for Fred and George Johnston, owners of the Agoura Stock Farm, at Hollywood Park. He won with Anchor Watch, Spy Lark, Hi Pardner, Moose-Moose and Breezing Bebe. Farrell had claimed Anchor Watch for Agoura at Hollywood Park for $7000, and the horse raced very successfully at the meeting. Farrell and Agoura, however, parted company, and two days later Anchor Watch went on to win the Oceanside Handicap at Del Mar.
Farrell Jones, on his part, opened a public stable again, and in 1957, when Buster Millerick left the West Coast to train for John D. Hertz, Farrell took on eight of Millerick’s and four other owners’ horses. Among that string of twelve were several of Vessels, and of owners Dave Sawaya and the late Al Hollivet.
During the 1958 Hollywood Park meeting, Farrell Jones won 9 races. Among them The Goose Girl Stakes with Leisure Lady. Earlier in the year he won the 1958 $50,000 Golden Gate Handicap with Agoura’s Ekaba.
In the previous year Jones also won the 1957 $15,000 Added Golden Poppy Handicap, at Golden Gate, with Mateka, owned by Frank Vessels. She ran second in this year’s Golden Poppy, encountering a lot of trouble during the race. A week later she came back, however, and won an allowance race in which she beat practically the same horses, and she ran it faster time than in the Golden Poppy.
“When this was being written, Farrell W. Jones with eleven firsts, seven seconds and four thirds in 39 starts at Del Mar, stood second on the seaside track’s list of leading trainers. By the way the first six horses Jones saddled at Del Mar each won. And the seventh horse he sent out came in second.
The 23 head he has at Bay Meadows are owned by J.J. Elmore (10); Frank Vessels (5); Dave Sawaya (3); Huntley Gordon (2); Hugh Hutson (1); Tony Escobar (1); and the Estate of T.T. Nevin (1). Which means plenty of work for rider-boy Donald Yeutter.
For Jones, who had previously started the famous jockey Ray York there, started Don Yeutter too, at Vessels. Don became an apprentice jockey at Del Mar in 1950, if my memory isn’t at fault, and rode for a couple of years or so until size and weight got the better of him. Since then Yeutter has been with Jones as an exercise boy, galloping for him and doing most of his breezing.
“As for his private life, Farrell, succumbing to the lures of Matrimony, let his charming bride Helen to the altar in Long Beach in 1943. They have two children, a boy and a girl. The latter, Vicky Lynn, age 8, is crazy about horses. And her elder brother, Garry, is firmly resolved to become a veterinarian. Gary fully appreciated that it nowadays take many years of hard studying before an aspirant can compete for a doctor of veterinary medicine with any hope of success. But if Gary’s amazing memory for details of how, when and where his father’s horses won, placed, or showed is any indication of the retentive ability of his grey matter, it’s a pretty safe bet that Gary will in due course make as sound a veterinarian as his father is a trainer.