2012 Eclipse Awards: Brereton C. Jones

photo by: Barbara D. Livingston

From his base at Airdrie Stud in Kentucky, Brereton C. Jones made a strong mark on graded racing in North America last year, thanks in large part to his homebreds. Airdrie stallion Proud Citizen’s Believe You Can took the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks and Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks, while his son Mark Valeski captured the Grade 2 Peter Pan Stakes after two close seconds in the Grade 2 Risen Star and Louisiana Derby. Two other Jones homebreds, Tu Endie Wei and Mr. Bowling, were Grade 3 winners.

The homebreds weren’t the only ones flying Jones’s flag. Racing for Jay Em Ess Stable, the 4-year-old filly Include Me Out was a Jones-bred star in California. She won a pair of valuable Grade 1 races – the Clement L. Hirsch and Santa Margarita Invitational stakes – and placed in three others. She also took the Grade 2 La Canada Stakes and the Marjorie L. Everett Handicap, earning $818,000 for the season. Like Believe You Can and Mark Valeski, Include Me Out is by an Airdrie stallion, Include.

Jones ended the year with 222 wins, 10 of them in graded stakes, and $7,777,775 in total earnings. His bankroll was second only to Adena Springs’s earnings, though Jones had far fewer starts: 1,591 compared to Adena’s 2,764.

Jones, who also was a finalist for the 2011 breeding Eclipse Award, established Airdrie in Midway, Ky., in 1972.