THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN: AS SHARP AS EVER AND STILL WITH A TWINKLE IN HIS EYE

By Graham Potter | Sunday, September 1, 2019

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily.

Alan Jones has enjoyed an illustrious career in horse racing … and you can underline the word ‘enjoyed.’

The veteran horseman was born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) before moving to New Zealand as a twelve-year-old. A lot of water passed under the bridge between then and the time Jones made the permanent move to the Sunshine Coast in 2007, but there is no doubt his knowledge and expertise has served racing well, over all of these decades, where-ever he has been based.

Jone’s roll of honour as a trainer includes victories in the Railway Handicap, the Sydney Cup, Victoria Oaks, New Zealand Derby and the Auckland Cup on two occasions.

On the administrative side, amongst others, he has served on the New Zealand Racing Board as well as spending time as President of the Cambridge Jockey Club and being on the New Zealand Trainers Association.

“I first came to the Sunshine Coast in 1987 when they built the new track,” Jones said, taking up the story.

“We wanted to buy three or four acres near the track so we could have a place to bring horses over to from New Zealand because we found that, even though I then had the best horses in New Zealand, when you brought them over here they wouldn’t settle quite as well because they were used to going out in the paddock during the day.

“I thought I would buy a little place here … but the track is built on a reserve so you couldn’t buy around it, so we somehow ended up buying 400 acres across the road which I needed like a hole in the head. We ended up selling 350 acres and keeping 50 acres.

“So, we kept coming over every winter, trying to bring four horses … sometimes we brought more. In those days the New Zealand horses had a bit on them up here. Nowadays they don’t.

“Then, twenty years after we first came to the Sunshine Coast, we settled here full time in 2007 in ‘retirement.’

"We bought a place on the beach … there is just grass between us and the sea. I thought how good is this. We’ll just lie on the beach and I’ll play golf. Three months of that drove me nuts and so I came back to the horses.

“I have said before that horses have a sort of aura about them. Working with good horses you get a thrill but there is also a sense of calm just being around them. They do have an aura. They have a presence which is quite therapeutic.

“I think it was Shakespeare who said, ‘the outside of the horse is good for the inside of a man.’ Or it might not have been him.

“The Sunshine Coast is brilliant. It is a great track … a very, very, good track. No matter where you draw from any barrier you have got a chance. Horses race well on it.

“And it wasn’t like that originally. It has been made that way through good management and the current management do a great job.

“Racing has been very good to be. I have had a great life through racing. I left school when I was fourteen. If it wasn’t for racing, I’d be sweeping the streets.”

Somehow you have got to doubt that. There is still a sharpness of mind and a twinkle in the eye that suggests Jones would have succeeded in whatever field he chose.

Clearly, it is racing’s gain that he chose the path he did!

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