How Arsenal helped Jones for the cup

Taken together, they form a collection of intuitive nuances which Jones brings to his craft in order to compete with the bigger Newmarket yards not far from his home at Wickhambrook, which he shares with Gemma, other daughter Diane and wife Sally.

In their care is Antonio Canova, named after the artist who sculpted the renowned Three Graces.

The five-year-old is clearly benefiting from an equally contented environment and innovative training practices.

The horse was the subject of a hefty gamble when he won the Great St Wilfrid at Ripon last month after being backed down from 12-1 to 7-2. The victory resulted in jubilant celebrations from Jones in front of the television cameras and, more importantly, approaches from owners for him to buy more yearlings. ?It?s finally paying off,? he said.

But Jones believed the secret to the Ripon success was simply patience. ?He is a horse who has gradually improved, and he?s improved more since Ripon,? he added.

?He is gaining in confidence and status, and he?s a very happy horse at home.?

The horse seems suspiciously like his trainer.

?I?m 58 now and I went into racing straight from school. I?ve been in racing all my life and have put all these years into it,? said Jones.

?You look, you learn, you listen. You?re always learning.?

With his family around him, Jones has enjoyed the confidence to experiment. Jones regularly risks damnation from his nearest and dearest for the ideas he conjures up for improving his work, yet often has the last laugh.

It was he who noted that Antonio Canova was suffering from fragile feet, so threw out the tradition of applying the horse?s racing plates on the eve of a race. Now the shoes are applied a week in advance in a practice extended to all his horses. Jones has also introduced a new bedding scheme.

?My family tell me I?m crazy,? Jones added. ?I might suggest something, but then 18 months later they?ll say, ?that wasn?t such a silly idea?.

?We?re using a new type of bedding, corrugated cardboard, that a showjumping friend of mine recommended last Christmas.

?We tried it out and it?s helped the horse?s breathing tremendously.

?I?d been looking for an alternative (to straw and paper) for years and liked the idea so much I bought the franchise.?

He believes his horses now need fewer pieces of fast work to get fit because of the cardboard?s benefits. Thus they suffer less wear and tear and stay longer in training. Jones now sells the peculiar bedding to trainers in Newmarket . . . and the quest for new approaches goes on.

Tony Smurthwaite is a writer with the Racing Post.