Betting angle: Quarter-horse trainer picks spots at Santa Anita

Here’s a betting angle for use once in a blue moon. When atop quarter-horse trainer who rarely races Thoroughbreds at major trackssuddenly shows up with a long shot, it’s time to pay attention.

A case in point came Friday, when Paul Jones, not only atop trainer but a legend in the quarter-horse game, sprung a surprise withScatchmejamin in the third race at Santa Anita.

Making the third start of her career off a five-plus monthlayoff, Scatchmejamin rocketed out of post 7 under jockey H.R. Lopez, opening atwo-length lead on six rivals in the initial strides and never looking back inthe 5 1/2-furlong, maiden special-weight race for California-bred or -sired3-year-old fillies.

Anyone who remembered Jones’s name from the equine dragstercircuit – and acted on what at the time could really only be described as ahunch play – was amply rewarded with a $40.40 payoff on a $2 win bet.

Jones said afterward that various minor, physical ailmentsas a 2-year-old and “little obstacles” this year kept Scatchmejamin away fromthe races after she finished eighth in her debut in a five-furlong turf race atDel Mar in August and ran second in a mixed Thoroughbred and quarter-horse dashat Los Alamitos the following month.

But he said he remained confident that the daughter of theobscure stallion Power Jam, now standing in Oklahoma, would be competitive onthe A circuit in her return.

“She kind of proved to us that she was the horse we thoughtshe was, so it was kind of nice,” he told Horse Racing Nation.

Jones, 57, is best known for his work with quarter horses. Heis the winningest trainer in the history of the sport both by wins, 4,489through Monday, and earnings, nearly $90 million. But he has been racing Thoroughbredssince 1993.

He has done well with them, too, winning with more than 20percent of his 559 previous starters. But those victories occurred at LosAlamitos, where Jones’s quarter-horse operation is based, or other mixed-breedtracks such as Ruidoso Downs and Sunland Park in New Mexico.

On the A-level tracks in Southern California – Del Mar,long-gone Hollywood Park and Santa Anita – Jones was 0-for-22 with Thoroughbredswith three seconds and three thirds heading into Friday’s race.

Most of those losses occurred early in Jones’s trainingcareer, when he was figuring out where his relatively few Thoroughbred runnersmight fit in the Southern California horsescape.

“They weren’t quite a good enough,” he said of those earlyentrants. “Kind of a hope and a dream.”

But in recent years Jones has been more selective in pittinghis horses against the tougher competition across town or down Interstate 5with only four starters in the last 10 years.

Now Scatchmejamin has him dreaming again.

“This is probably the first nice Thoroughbred I’ve everreally had,” he said of the filly, whom he bred and co-owns with partner RickyOverly.

Jones takes extra satisfaction in the fact Scatchmejamin wasthe first Thoroughbred he has ever bred. She was an unlikely pairing of PowerJam, who for a time owned the track records for 5 1/2 furlongs at both Del Marand Santa Anita, and the Scat Daddy mare Scatchmeifyoucan, both of whom hepurchased to cross-breed with quarter horses.

“The mare had a lot of speed, and we wanted to cross herwith quarter horses. We did and we got a couple babies, and they were justdecent horses. Nothing special,” he said. “We acquired Power Jam to bring toquarter horses, too, and he’s crossing pretty well with them. So since I hadthe interest in Power Jam, and we had this mare, I said, ‘Well, let’s justbreed her to Power Jam,’ and we did, and this is the filly.”

Jones said he would like to get more involved in Thoroughbredracing, following in the footsteps of quarter-horse predecessors such as D. WayneLukas and Bob Baffert, but his current clientele isn’t geared toward the sport.

“You know a trainer’s only as good as his horses,” he said.“I think I’d have no problem training Thoroughbreds, but I’d have to have theright client who had some good horses to give me the opportunity. Same thingwhen Baffert and Lukas went over there, they had the right clients to put goodhorses in their barns to give them opportunities to excel.”

In the meantime, Jones is looking forward to runningScatchmejamin again, ideally in an allowance sprint for non-winners of two forCalifornia-breds.

“Both her mother and her dad were pretty good sprinters, soI’m not looking to stretch her out at this point,” he said.