Trainer Larry Jones is preparing Kentucky Derby runner-up Hard Spun for Saturday’s 132nd Preakness Stakes, hoping to derail the Triple Crown bid of Street Sense. This week, he shares his thoughts about training his speedy colt with Post readers. As told to Ed Fountaine.
STANTON, Del. – We’re just going to gallop Hard Spun right up to the Preakness. He just absolutely acts like he’s done nothing. For him to do this well is like a dream. I’m used to having to worry about everything, but he’s not giving me anything to worry about. And I thank him. This is just too good to be true.
Our jockey, Mario Pino, passed Jerry Bailey on the all-time list Sunday (riding his 5,894th winner), so now he can think about other things. Mario started riding for me last spring when we came into Delaware.
I actually hooked up with Mario’s agent (Bill Castle) when he had a rider named Norberto Arroyo. When I left Oaklawn, I asked a couple of jockeys who always rode for me in the Midwest if they wanted to come with us, but they decided to stay. So we came into Delaware with no jockey. I knew Arroyo was a quality jock, and we thought he was going to be riding Delaware for the meet. That lasted a couple of weeks, then Norberto decided he was going to stay in New York.
The agent wanted to stay here, and he started looking for a jockey. He asked me if he could get Pino, would I be interested in putting Mario on some horses. I said I’d sure give him a try. Because, as I tell everybody, if you watch simulcast racing, you’re going to know who Mario Pino is.
So he rode a couple of horses for us, and by then I was pretty sure we found our jock.
He’s been with us since. He fits our program well. When you come into an area, and you’ve got a pretty good string of horses, when you add Pino to the equation, you get to be a lot stronger fast.
At that time, Hard Spun was one of the 2-year-olds just coming along. Mario worked him early in his career, we liked what we saw, and he managed to stay on him.
Yes, there was talk at one time about whether we needed to change riders, going with someone who was a bigger name or more experienced in top races. But of course, I felt very confident with Mario. The more Mr. (Rick) Porter (Hard Spun’s owner) and I talked about it, he agreed that Mario is definitely a top-class rider. He rode against (Kent) Desormeaux and (Edgar) Prado on a regular basis in Maryland and more than held his own.
We were very pleased to stay with him, and happy with the way it’s turned out. We never, ever felt we were at a disadvantage, and now we’re heading to Pimlico, Mario’s home track. Churchill Downs is Calvin Borel territory, but we’re going to Pino country, and we don’t plan on being nice. We intend to get even.