Jones named Leadership Award recipient

Goshen, NY – Renowned third generation harness racing breeder and farm owner Steve Jones will be the recipient of the United States Harness Writers Association (USHWA) Monticello-Goshen Chapter’s John Manzi Leadership Award at their annual awards banquet in Campbell Hall, NY.

Recognized for his influential work with a multitude of organizations, recently Jones was instrumental in his role as trustee of the Agriculture and New York State Horse Breeding Fund in securing a record purse structure for the New York Sire Stakes program for 2025.  In addition, the ‘Ag Fund’ also announced $1.75 million in breeders awards along with a set of new 2-year-old races with a million dollar total purse structure.

Jones stated, “We have worked very hard to make the program as good as possible for everyone.  It’s important to develop a racing schedule so that all the program participants can be rewarded appropriately.”

While his roots are now firmly entrenched in Orange County, New York, where the family owns and operates Cameo Hills Farm on over 400 acres, Jones was born in Bucyrus, Ohio while his father (Hall of Famer Hal Jones) and grandfather (Walter) both worked at Pickwick Farms.

Jones recalls his first job in the industry when he was living at Hanover Shoe Farms.  “I worked on the weekends, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., answering the phone in the office on Saturday and sometimes Sunday.  I worked 18 hours a week and made $ 2.30 per hour.  This gave me a weekly take home pay of $ 38.98 a week.  And I was thrilled to get it.”

At other times he also lived on Blue Chip Farms and Lana Lobell Farm of NJ where his father was the farm manager.  Jones graduated from Delaware Valley College in Doylestown, Pennsylvania in 1982, which was the same year that the family purchased the land that is now Cameo Hills Farm.

Jones stated, “I would say my father let me deal with the clients from the day we started the farm, because he didn’t want to deal with them!”

Learning early in life how to speak to people and get things done, he continued, “So I was talking to clients about their mares and dealing with their wants and needs at the sale from the very beginning.  I was also very involved in the mares and stallion shares that we purchased.  I was fortunate to be able to rely on my dad’s knowledge for many years.”

The list of champion race horses bred by Jones reads like a who’s who in the chronicles of the Standardbred sport, including: King Of The North, Max Contract, Instagram Model and Check Me Out.  Over the years the Jones’ have also bred Deweycheatumnhowe, Well Said, Goalie Jeff, and many more.  In fact, Steve Jones has been a top ten North American breeder for money earnings in two of the last three years, and routinely ranks among the top twenty against nurseries with far more foals per year.

Focusing on quality over quantity, Jones can still be seen at the sales purchasing quality breeding stock to add to their impressive broodmare band.  He is often accompanied by his sons Tyler and Jake, who are fourth generation horsemen and assist in the daily operation of the farm.

Jones met his wife of 32 years, Kathy, while he was in college and she also helps run the family business.  A sampling of the stellar group of mares that call Cameo Hills Farm home are: Bella Bellini, Check Me Out, Venerable, You Ato Dream, Hey Blondie, Brickhouse Babe, Mazzarati, Delilah Hanover, Blonde Bombshell, Violet Stride, Check Out Trixie and Born On Third Base.  Many of the yearlings from these prized mares blew up the bid board at the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale this season, where Cameo Hills was the third leading consignor by average ($112,469 for 32 sold) for a gross of $3.59 million (ranked fifth overall).

In addition to his role at the Ag Fund, Jones is also the President of Goshen Historic Track, a trustee of the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame, a director of the Hambletonian Society and Vice President of the Grand Circuit.

In his usual tongue in cheek style, Jones quipped, “All jobs pay the same!”

When the Monticello-Goshen USHWA Chapter holds their 65^th annual Awards Banquet, presented by the New York Sire Stakes, on Sunday, December 8, 2024, Steve Jones will receive the chapter’s second highest honor, their John Manzi Leadership Award.

This year at our new, larger venue the chapter has been given the opportunity to include the New York Sire Stakes and U. S. Trotting District 8 Awards., which will be in addition to the year-end awards for horses and horse people from the local tracks.

The Monticello-Goshen chapter will also honor Eddie Hart (Lifetime Achievement Award); Kim Crawford (Excelsior Award); Heather Reese Marshall (John Gilmour Good ‘Gal’ Award); Irv Atherton (Amy Bull Crist Distinguished Service Award); Jessica Otten (Phil Pines Award); Tyler ‘TJ’ Miller (Rising Star); Carolyn Atherton (Cradle of the Trotter Breeders Award); Andrew Adamcyzk (Amateur Driver); and Dale Berenson (Mighty M Award of Appreciation).

Funds raised through the banquet and souvenir journal have allowed the Monticello-Goshen Chapter to give well over $135,000 to Goshen Historic Track and the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame over the last two decades.  The Track and the Museum are two separate and distinct entities that share the same hallowed ground and a mutual purpose of preserving and promoting harness racing.

The practice of raising money and donating funds to Historic Track and the Hall of Fame began in the mid-1970s with Monticello Raceway publicity icon John Manzi, and has continued ever since.

Tickets for the gala event at the new venue, The Country Club at Otterkill, Campbell Hall, NY, can be reserved by contacting Shawn Wiles at (845) 798-4074, or Email: swiles@rwcatskills.com.

To place a congratulatory ad in the souvenir journal, please contact Chris Tully at (845) 807-7538, or Email: tullytrot@yahoo.com.

From the Monticello-Goshen Chapter of USHWA