Horace A. Jones

Horace A. "Jimmy" Jones (November 24, 1906 â€" September 2, 2001) was an American thoroughbred horse trainer.

The son of Hall of Fame horse trainer Ben A. Jones, Jimmy Jones was born in Parnell, Missouri. Raised around horses from infancy, he learned the art of training from his father while working with him at Woolford Farm in Prairie Village, Kansas from 1931 to 1939 after which his father signed on as the head trainer at Calumet Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. There, Jimmy Jones worked as his father's assistant but his career was interrupted when he joined the United States military during World War II. At war's end he returned to training horses and in 1948 took over the head trainer duties from his father who was appointed Calumet Farm's General Manager.

In 1948, Jimmy Jones stepped aside as the trainer of record for Citation to allow his father to be officially designated as the trainer for the Kentucky Derby. Ben Jones wanted the opportunity to equal the record of Henry J. "Derby Dick" Thompson, who had trained four Derby winners. "Citation" won the race but it did not matter as Ben Jones later returned to training and won the Derby two more times. Jimmy Jones was named Citation's trainer for the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. Citation became the Jones family's second U.S. Triple Crown winner. In 1957, Jimmy Jones won his first "official" Kentucky Derby with Iron Liege, and claimed victory again the next year with future Hall of Fame colt Tim Tam who also won the Preakness. Many fans and race experts believe Tim Tam would certainly have won the Triple Crown had he not broken a sesamoid bone in his right foreleg coming down the homestretch in the Belmont stakes that resulted in the horse finishing in a gallant second place.

As head trainer for Calumet Farm, Jimmy Jones trained seven champion horses and won 54 stakes races. In addition to his two Derby wins, he won four Preakness Stakes and one Belmont Stakes. He was the leading trainer in the United States five times (1947, 1948, 1949, 1957, 1961) and was the first trainer to earn more than $1 million in purses in a single season. In 1959 he followed his father as an inductee into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. He retired from training in 1964 to take over as the Director of Racing at Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport, New Jersey.

Jones spent his final years in full retirement in his native Missouri where he passed away at the age of ninety-four at a nursing home in Maryville.