An avid and able horseman, Jones rides both flat and jump races as an amateur rider as often as he can. On August 4th, 2001, Jones was in New Kent as his horse Maternity Leave captured a steeplechase event over the Colonial Downs Turf Course.
On July 11th, 2002, Jones, Mickey Dolenz and other members with "Stars of the Monkees" cheered Davy's Indiantown Jones to a 5th place finish in another grass race here.
Currently overseeing a ten horse stable in Florida, Jones expects to ship up to eight horses to Colonial Downs in time for the June 13th opener.
Davy Jones, pop/rock singer of The Monkees fame, will return in 2003 as Colonial Downs’ celebrity spokesperson for the second straight year.
The former heartthrob turned thoroughbred horse trainer was at the track last week taping a new slate of television and radio commercials that will promote Colonial Downs’ seventh season of thoroughbred horse racing, which begins June 13th. Jones is also expected to stable between five and eight of his horses at Colonial Downs and will perform a concert on July 4th in conjunction with live racing and a fireworks display.
Jones has come full circle in his career. As a teenager in England, he exercised thoroughbreds on the racetrack, and sang a little on the side. Then his singing career galloped ahead of his horse racing opportunities and he became an international star and teen heartthrob. Now, nearly forty years later, he spends most of his days with thoroughbreds again, this time training and exercising them. “I live, breathe, eat and sleep horses now,” said Jones between takes of his commercial shoots. “The energy and adrenaline you get from watching your horse compete is hard to put into words. The competition is the real attraction to me as a trainer because a horse’s success is something that I can help make or break. It’s not even about the prize, it’s about winning.”
His musical talents are still in demand, and he performs about 20 days out of the year. The original foursome has dissolved, each moving on to individual projects, so Jones tours with his own ten piece band. Jones though has always maintained his connection to horse racing.
Throughout his adult life he has competed in amateur races. Now he has his own racing stable, Spruce Lawn Farms, with twelve horses in training. Two years ago he brought a horse to Colonial Downs under the guidance of trainer Jonathan Sheppard. It was Jones’ first introduction to the Virginia racetrack. His horse won a steeplechase event, and he has been high on the course ever since.
“The grass here is great,” he said, “And possibly the best in the country.” Jones races his horses at Calder, but is anxious to get them on the turf. We’ve been racing on the dirt because we don’t have the turf options that we will have here,” added Jones, referring to Colonial’s 180 foot wide Secretariat Turf Course. “We hope to have a horse racing every week.”
With the outstanding turf and dirt surfaces at Colonial Downs, some trainers bring their horses to train, and race just for the experience, but not Jones. He’s preparing his horses for serious competition. “This year we’re coming to race.”