Larry Jones' galloping days are over following a serious spill last Saturday.

Larry Jones is best known to the racing public as the trainer of a Horse of the Year and three Kentucky Oaks winners.

But to insiders who have marveled at some of his practices through the years, Jones also is known as the 185-pound trainer who exercises his own horses. And that, finally, has come to an end.

Jones, 63, suffered nine broken ribs, a broken collarbone, and a fractured vertebra after being thrown from an unraced 2-year-old colt he was galloping last Saturday morning at Ellis Park. Jones is ambulatory and back at work, saying this week by phone from the western Kentucky track: “That’ll be the last one I ride. I’ve gone out in style.”

In April 2014, Jones suffered serious injuries in a morning spill at Delaware Park and was placed in a medically induced coma. But even that spill and others had not deterred him.

“Every time I’d get hurt, all I’d think about was getting back up,” said Jones. “But not any longer. I’m drawing this as the line. I’ve looked for the end of that racetrack for 40 years now, but I’m done looking.”

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Jones said he may train from atop a stable pony “or on the ground like some of the other guys do, I don’t know.” One of his more immediate concerns is getting two of his stable stars, Street Band and Istan Council, ready for the $100,000 Groupie Doll, one of five stakes set for Aug. 9 at Ellis.

Jones long has had a certain way with fillies. The Hopkinsville, Ky., native trained in relative obscurity for more than 20 years before winning his first graded stakes in the mid-2000s with Ruby’s Reception, Island Sand, and Josh’s Madelyn, all fillies. Then came his career benchmarks – Kentucky Oaks victories with Proud Spell (2008), Believe You Can (2012), and Lovely Maria (2015). In the meantime, he also was the trainer of Havre de Grace, the 2011 Horse of the Year, as well as such standout fillies as the ill-fated Eight Belles, Joyful Victory, I’m a Chatterbox, and most recently Street Band, a Grade 1 winner last year.

“We’ve had a great run,” said Jones. “I’m going to heal up and be fine. I didn’t have a head injury this time, nor anything to cause me paralysis or long-term damage. I’ve been very fortunate.”

Six go in Friday feature

The featured event on a modest nine-race Friday card at Ellis is a $39,000 first-level allowance that drew six fillies and mares. Sara Sea, with Brian Hernandez Jr. riding for D. Wayne Lukas, looks like the horse to beat in the one-mile main-track race, which starts in the clubhouse chute.

The highlight of the three-day weekend is the $50,000 Good Lord for sprinters on Sunday. First post daily at Ellis is 12:50 p.m. Central.

◗ Through the first seven programs at Ellis, Rafael Bejarano leads the jockey standings with nine wins and Dane Kobiskie leads all trainers with five wins.

Bejarano was the leading jockey at Ellis in 2003 and 2004 before moving to California. Kobiskie actually rode one summer at Ellis, winning 42 races in 2005, before he turned to training in 2008.

◗ Go Google Yourself, winner of the 2019 Groupie Doll as well as two Grade 3 stakes in her 21-race career, has been retired by owner-breeder Samantha Siegel following a subpar effort in the June 27 Fleur de Lis at Churchill Downs. In all, the 5-year-old Into Mischief mare won seven races and $642,959, all for trainer Paul McGee.