Tumbarumba. (Jenny Doyle/Past The Wire)
Past The Wire Staff
HENDERSON, Ky.— Ellis Park provided plenty of competition for older horses with the $200,000 R.A. “Cowboy” Jones Stakes at one mile for 3-year-olds and up in a field that included two 4-year-olds and 8-year-old Three Techniques.
Trained by Brian Lynch, Wathnan Racing’s Tumbarumba would give jockey Tyler Gaffalione his second of four stakes with five on the day.
Frosted Departure broke first and showed the way in a 23.63 first quarter with Prince of Power in hot pursuit after being antsy in the starting gate.
Prince of Power bumped with This Is Uscar early on and then pressed outside of the Frosted Departure from the three path into the backstretch.
Tracking from the four path around the far turn, Tumbarumba ranged up to bid outside of the leaders entering the lane. Prince of Power vied into the far turn and forged an advantage at the five sixteenths pole and dug in between challengers around the turn sparring deep into stretch but Tumbarumba dueled into the final furlong and edged past late.
Frosted Departure got headed by an outer presser at the five sixteenths pole then faltered between horses entering the lane and drifted out while weakening to fourth.
Three Techniques who broke in the air and spotted the rest multiple lengths at the start completed the order of finish.
Banishing and Cagliostro were scratched.
The race was contested on dirt in a final time of 1:35.38 with fractions of 46.05, 1:09. 80 and 1:22.25.
Bred in Louisiana by Coteau Grove Farms, LLC, the 5-year-old gelding is sired by Oscar Performance out of Street Sense mare Naive Enough.
An Ellis Park Derby winner in 2023, Tumbarumba has six wins (seven seconds, four thirds) in 23 career starts including the Grade 3, Fred W. Hooper at Gulfstream Park in 2024. Adding $138,000 to career earnings bring bay over three-quarters of a million.
The race is named for legendary rider R.A.”Cowboy Jones.
“The fabric of Ellis Park is Cowboy Jones,” Ellis racing secretary Dan Bork said.
Jones, who officially began riding in 1959 after spending time at the bush tracks around South Dakota, won at least one race in six different decades and fell short of his attempt to make it a record seventh. For the last part of his career, he’d ride only a few races a meet but was out every morning to get on horses until the stewards made him finally hang up his saddle.
But Cowboy wasn’t finished with the sport he loved. You’d see the longtime Henderson resident out every day that Ellis Park ran, always smiling, talking with fans, reveling in getting his photo taken while wearing a huge cowboy hat and serving as ambassador for the track and racing.
“He was an icon at Ellis Park and let’s not forget Miles Park,” trainer Rick Hiles, who first met Jones in the 1970s, said in reference to the long-shuttered track in west Louisville where Cowboy was the king. “He was fearless, and he was the kingpin – one of the top riders around. He gave it his all. That was what he loved doing, and he was a character.”
Cowboy Jones died April 25 at the age of 79, leaving legions of fans with countless memories of and affection for the track’s No. 1 personality. Other jockeys have won more races and riding titles than Jones’ three meet championships at Ellis Park. No one comes close as a folk hero.
