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Trainer Paul Jones Reaches Two Milestones In Illustrious Career
13-time AQHA Racing Champion trainer Paul Jones has saddled 4000 winners with earnings of more than $88 million.

© Scott Martinez
Trainer Paul Jones Reaches Two Milestones In Illustrious Career

by Greg Thompson, Stallionesearch.com

LOS ALAMITOS, CA—MAY 2, 2016—The 13-time AQHA World Champion Trainer Paul Jones has recently eclipse two more milestones in his career by passing the $80 million mark in earnings, as well as reaching the 4000 wins plateau.

The California-based trainer, who also has a New Mexico operation, was already the all-time leader in earnings, and now joins trainer Blane Schvaneveldt as the only two Quarter Horse race trainers in history to eclipse the 4000 wins mark. Schvaneveldt is at the top of the all-time wins list with 5186 career wins.

A Team Effort And Humble Beginnings

Upon being notified of the achievement, the now 50-year old perennial leading trainer was as thankful for the efforts of others that allow his operation to garner such milestones that have become abundant on his training resume.

“I am very honored to have reached both of these milestones,” said Jones. “As I have said many times before, it is a team effort that has led to all this success we have had at Paul Jones Racing. I am much like a head coach of a football team. There are so many moving parts in this operation, and it is a collaborative effort from the assistant trainers, grooms, exercise riders, jockeys, farriers, veterinarians, and having great owners.”

“Lisa Saumell in New Mexico, Rocky Gonzales at Los Alamitos, and my ranch manager Jeff Pitcher are all my quarterbacks in this operation. Without having great assistants like them, it would be literally impossible to keep an operation of this size running as smooth as it does. My mother Joyce is also a big part of our operation, and has always done all of my billing, which has turned into a very large job. Of course I would be remised if I forgot to acknowledge the part that my wife Marin plays in keeping everything afloat as well as she does. I am very blessed to have all of these people working to help us achieve what we have in racing.”

Although Jones’s operation is commonly known in Quarter Horse racing as one of the elite race barns in the sport, the trainer can remember back not so long ago when he could only dream of the achievements in Quarter Horse racing history that he is reaching.

“I learned everything about caring for a horse from my father Paul T. Jones,” said Jones. “I have never worked for anyone but him, and he didn’t have really anything but a bunch of cheap claiming horses. He passed away in 2002, and never got to see the success that I have had over the last decade. When I went out on my own, the best horse I had in the entire barn was a $5,000 claimer. I started at the bottom, and had to work for everything I have achieved. So it would have been very hard to believe that I would be talking with you about decades later of the career I have been fortunate enough to have.

Schvaneveldt’s All-Time Win Record

With the mark of 4000 wins being achieved, the next possible plateau of 5,000 wins will put Jones within range of surpassing the legendary Schvaneveldt. This was a record that many, including Jones, thought was untouchable. In the past five years, Jones has tallied win totals of: 169,167,160, 166, 156. If you take the average, Jones has winning 164 race each year for the last five-years. If you assume everything in the Jones operation remains relative constant for the time-being, Jones would be on track to surpass Schvaneveldt in the next seven to eight years."

“It is not something I go to bed worrying about whether I will reach that number,” said Jones. “I have all the respect for Blane as a horseman, and don’t want to take anything away from what he has achieved. When I reached the 2000 wins mark in my career, I thought that there was just no way that I would get close to that record that he holds of 5,186 wins. As time goes by, I am starting to feel that it is at least possible. We will just keep up the hard-work, and dedication, and hope that we continue with the success that he have been having.”