The pandemic precipitated a lot of life-changing decisions. For Tyler Jones, it meant giving up a government job in youth-protection services in Sherbrooke, Que. and choosing the horse racing industry full-time.
He gave his notice a month ago and recently moved to Guelph to start work at the stable of his father, accomplished horseman Dustin Jones, with the goal of making a name for himself at tracks large and small in southern Ontario.
"I worked three years (for youth-protection services), the last two as a case worker, and I was feeling a bit burned out," said Jones, 27, who has a criminology degree from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont. "With COVID, no sports, no outside activities, everything shut down, I just kind of got sick of it."
What he wasn't sick of was harness racing. He grew up in the sport and, upon returning to his native Quebec after graduation, began to drive part-time at Hippodrome 3R in Trois-Rivieres and Rideau Carleton Raceway in Ottawa, learning the hard way against seasoned sulky veterans like Pascal Berube, Stephane Gendron, Guy Gagnon and Stephane Brosseau.
"They're top-level drivers. Pascal is extremely good at making speed with a horse. I had many quarter-mile battles with him. Stephane Brosseau shows you the value of patience. On the half-mile track, you've got to get out of there, get position, know which horses to follow and which not to. I was often first-over, but that's the learning curve."
Jones, whose first win was five years ago was at Georgian Downs, has had a few memorable victories already. He won an Ontario Sires Stake Grassroots event at Rideau Carleton with one of his father's trotting fillies and the $55,000 Quebec Series final for two-year-old trotting fillies at Trois-Rivieres in 2019 with Emotions Durables for trainer Cassandra Lecourt.
But it's hard to advance when it's more hobby than job, Jones said.
"I was a bit of a late starter anyway, it wasn't my plan initially to be in the horses. I was doing it more as a hobby, an escape. But when you get into racing, you get the bug. I'm competitive. At 27, I felt it was time to go for it. I made my pitch to my dad when he came back from Florida this year and things fell into place. I've been helping him in the mornings. He's got mostly stakes horses, but I hope to drive a few for him as well as for other trainers.
"I've picked up a few drives already. I'll take as many as I can. It's what I want to do. I have a couple of wins at Kawartha Downs and I plan to drive there every Saturday. Driving an hour-and-a-half from Guelph to Kawartha isn't bad at all when you're used to driving three-and-a-half-hours from Sherbrooke to Rideau."
(A Trot Insider Exclusive by Paul Delean)