Paul C. Jones

When you come to a fork in the road, as famously advised by Yogi Berra, just take it. In the sport and industry of racing the fastest horses on earth, routes and records branch though starters, wins, earnings, champions, championships, and on and on, and Paul Jones took pretty much every fork on the way.

One of the greatest trainers in Quarter Horse racing history, Paul Jones–the Blane Schvaneveldt of his generation–holds the record of 14 AQHA Blane Schvaneveldt Champion Trainer titles. Following in his father’s steps as a trainer at California’s Los Alamitos Race Course, Paul since 1990 has conditioned the winners of more than 4,500 races (second only, and closing, to Schvaneveldt’s 5,348). American Quarter Horses that he sent to post have come back with the all-time record of more than $90 million in earnings, far and away more than anyone else and almost twice as much as any currently active trainer.

Now 58, Paul has sent out the winners of more than 460 stakes, with nearly a hundred Grade 1 and Restricted Grade 1 scores, including winning the All American Futurity three times, with Teller Cartel, No Secrets Here and Runnning Brook Gal; Champion of Champions six times, with Whosleavingwho, The Down Side, Cash For Kas, Wave Carver, Good Reason SA and Rylees Boy; and the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity twice, with A Regal Choice and Good Reason SA.

Paul has scored 20 leading trainer titles at Los Alamitos, added another 20 as the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association’s leading trainer and added more buckles leading the conditioners at Ruidoso Downs and Zia Park. In 2005, Paul saddled 280 winners at Los Alamitos alone, setting the track record for wins in a single year, while averaging 201 wins per year from 2001 to 2009 at the West Coast citadel.

Numbers are nice, but they don’t tell the whole story. Success on the track is not limited simply by the horses that a trainer conditions, but also (among other things) for whom the horses are being conditioned. A model of consistency, the Jones operation has fielded horses racing for some of the most prominent owners in the industry, including American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame members Abigail Kawananakoa, Tom Bradbury, R. D. Hubbard, John Andreini and AQHA Past President Frank “Scoop” Vessels. In addition to training horses for clients, Paul alone and in partnerships also has bred and owned major sprinters such as champion Foose and Grade 1 winner Favorite Cartel.

“Paul has dominated many racing categories, but his main goal is to accomplish what is best for his owners and his horses,” says his wife, Marin. “He knows his horses intimately, without even looking at their name tags.”

A member of the Ruidoso Hall of Fame, Paul was honored by his peers with PCQHRA’s 2022 Frank Vessels Sr. Memorial Award. With multiple years of service on the AQHA Racing Committee and various task forces, Paul in 2009 received the AQHA Gordon Crone Award for service to the industry.

“Paul has performed best against the best at the biggest races in the sport of Quarter Horse racing,” notes Orlando Gutierrez, the Los Alamitos marketing and publicity director who has covered every running of the Two Million Futurity and 30 of the 51 runnings of the Champion of Champions. “I have tremendous respect for how Paul runs his barn and is always available to work with Southern California media outlets to promote American Quarter Horse racing in a positive manner, or willing to help others in any way possible.

“Paul has long been a huge supporter of the Los Alamitos division of the Race Track Chaplaincy of America,” Orlando says. “In 2011, when the Make-A-Wish Foundation called Los Alamitos Race Course on behalf of a young man named Emanuel Curiel, a 17-year-old teenager from South Carolina whose wish was to visit the famous trainers, jockeys and horses at the Southern California track, Paul opened up his barn and treated Emanuel like a king for the entire weekend. Emanuel passed away a few months later, after a courageous fight with cancer, but his family told me how much it meant to him to have met his Quarter Horse racing heroes.”

Echoing the sentiment is Ty Wyant, who writes AQHA’s Q-Racing Blog and has covered Quarter Horse racing since Dash For Cash’s freshman season in 1976. “First, and foremost, Paul is a family man of high character. His wife, Marin, has supported him throughout his career and they have two incredible daughters, Mia and Allie. There is always something happening in the Jones family, and they have a bond built on love and dedication.

“Second, Paul has his barn at Los Alamitos and had a second stable at Ruidoso Downs and other tracks,” Ty says. “He has had assistant trainers at each track, and they have been his trusted assistants for a long time. That shows how he treats his employees and is more evidence of his character. If you are looking for a racehorse trainer and find one with talented, dedicated and longtime assistants, give that trainer added consideration.”

Team and family always come first.

“Paul is pleased to say that he could not have achieved any of these accomplishments without the help of his team, owners, friends and family,” Marin says. “Paul may have won many important races, but he is very humble and down to earth. When he comes home, he is a proud husband and father.”

That’s another fork in the road. Paul was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2024.

Biography updated as of July 2024.