Dustin Jones’ longshot road to the Mohawk Million
by Melissa Keith
Well known for his success with young trotters, the Mohawk Million is one of the few major races for them where trainer Dustin Jones has not left his mark — yet.
The draw for this year’s Mohawk Million took place on March 26, with 34 owners, trainers, breeders, and partnerships vying for 10 coveted slots in the Grade 1 race for 2-year-old trotters. Unlike traditional stakes races, each $60,000 Mohawk Million slot can be sold or transferred should the original owner choose not to use it for the Sept. 26, 2026 race at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
“My son [Tyler Jones] and I were going to [bid for a slot] three years ago, because we figured we could double our money, our investment, if we didn’t have a horse that would go in it,” said Dustin on Friday (April 3). “But then we didn’t do it.
“Then last year, I had a couple of trotting colts, so I [entered a bid for a slot] with a few partners. It wasn’t just me, by myself. I had seven partners last year, and then this year, it’s six guys.”
Dustin said his current Mohawk Million slot partners include Golden Bear Racing (Mike DeVries) of California; Andrea Lea Racing Stable (George Lowenfeld) of Quebec; Hébert Horses Inc. (Jocelyne Hébert) of Quebec; Todd Coleman of Ontario; and Sjoblom Racing Inc. (Matt Sjoblom) of Florida.
With owners like that, Dustin was feeling optimistic about having a serious Mohawk Million prospect in his stable.
“Yeah, I think we have a couple,” said the veteran trainer, speaking from his winter training base, Palema Trotting Center in Vero Beach, FL. “Actually, we have five fillies and four colts, so we’re hoping one of them would be good enough to maybe go, and who knows — Matt [Sjoblom] might have one with Noel Daley if he didn’t have one with us.”
Dustin added that he was confident that they could “make some kind of an arrangement if there’s a couple of owners in the group [who also own] one of the horses that don’t have a share,” if necessary. The 2026 slots are expected to be in high demand as the Mohawk Million approaches, because “some of the big players didn’t get a slot this year,” so Dustin said selling it outside the group is also an option.
In early April, it was still much too soon for Dustin to single out a particular trainee aiming toward the big race.
“I have a couple that I have an idea on, but you know how that works; sometimes the ones that aren’t training quite as well, once they get behind the gate, they just change completely,” he said. “Some of the other ones, once you put them in the first race, they’re not as good as you think they are. So, you never know.”
Proudly self-employed since 1982, the formerly Quebec-based horseman said he was always watching for early underachievers to step up later on.
“I’ve done this for a long time,” he said. “Sometimes you get surprises when the baby races start. Last year, we thought Bingo Night was good, but how do you know she would’ve been that good?”
Now 3, the Green Manalishi S filly recorded five wins from 12 starts in her first year of racing. Bingo Night (2, 1:53.4s; $307,162) only missed the board once, finishing second in her Ontario Sires Stakes division. Bingo Night broke her maiden in her first start, July 4 at Mohawk, in line to Tyler Jones. They won going away in OSS Gold leg 1 on July 11, and repeated in Gold leg 3 on Aug. 4 at Mohawk. Second in the Peaceful Way (G1) and Champlain Stakes (G3), Bingo Night returned to the winner’s circle after a lifetime-best victory in the Oct. 11 OSS Gold Super Final, and ended her freshman season after a seventh-place finish in the Breeders Crown.
“She was always there, right from the start to the end,” Dustin said. “We owned her grandmother [Tommi My Girl] and bred the mother [Cant Stop Tommi], and then we bred her [Bingo Night]. The mother never raced; she had a chip in her knee, and that was the first foal of the mare.”
Dustin said he likes to start his horses a little later than most at the beginning of each stakes season.
“You see a lot of the horses that race in [early stakes], they get over-raced in there and they don’t seem to get any better over the summer,” he said.
Bingo Night has been sustained to this year’s OSS Gold events, the Simcoe (G3), the Elegantimage (G1), the Breeders Crown (G1), and the Matron (G2).
With 20 horses in training at Palema Trotting Center, Dustin planned on staying in Florida until May 2, and then returning to Golden Horseshoe Lanes in Flamborough, ON.
“Some years are better than others,” he said. “The last couple of years we started to get partnerships with different owners… We’re doing that more, and we have more broodmares. Some of the babies we don’t put through the sales; some we do. Some we sell for good money. We try to keep the fillies; the colts, we put in the sale.”
He and one partner also own stallion shares in Captain Corey, Tactical Landing, Ecurie D, and Six Pack.
In a full-circle coincidence, Tyler is now training a filly owned by the man Dustin called “the first paying customer I ever had, Litwin Racing Team from Montreal.” Cas El Mystic (2, 2:07.3f; $6,683) made 10 starts as a 2-year-old in Quebec stakes for trainer/driver Dustin, who had formerly campaigned homebreds.
The “Cas El” prefix gained prestige when Emilie Cas El (3,1:57.1f; $245,199) was voted Canada’s 1994 O’Brien Horse of the Year as a 2-year-old. Bred by Fermes Angus Farms of Bedford, QC, the Garland Lobell daughter was the firstborn foal of her Canadian and U.S. Hall of Fame dam, Amour Angus.
“We changed her name,” recalled her trainer/driver. “The partner that I had on Emilie Cas El, his name was Wendell Cass. He was the breeder of Cas El Mystic. [Emilie Cas El] was the first horse I bought him at a sale.”
As Dustin looks forward to his 44th consecutive year as a trainer/driver, he remains perplexed as to why Emilie Cas El is still on the ballot for the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, rather than inducted years ago. The mare passed away in 2021, after an exceptional career both on and off the track in North America and Europe. She had made the ballot in the past, but never came out on top. The class of 2026 will be announced April 8.
“That is mind-boggling,” he said. “It’s incredible that she hasn’t [been inducted]. She was Horse of the Year, undefeated at 2; set a track record at Mohawk and at Blue Bonnets; she’s given us a Hambletonian winner [Trixton, in 2014] and a Breeders Crown winner [Impressive Kemp, in 2010]. Every time she’s up, she’s been up against an Ontario horse like Pure Ivory and had no shot. This year, she’s up against Put On A Show… It’s sort of disgusting that she’s not in there [already]. I don’t understand that.”
As a horseman who launched his career in Quebec, Dustin expressed empathy for those who were racing at Rideau Carleton Raceway, which officially closed as a pari-mutuel track on March 2.
“The guys from Three Rivers and Quebec and Montreal were doing well there, and it would give those guys another opportunity,” he said. “It’s a shame. It’s a total disgrace. The only way these casinos were [originally] able to operate was because the horsemen let them into their tracks. Now they’ve just cannibalized them… They did the same at Pompano and now they’ve done it at Rideau and in B.C. [Fraser Downs]. They never would have had a place to get in and have a casino, but because the horsemen agreed to it, the cities agreed to it also.”
Although Dustin and Tyler were able to continue their careers at Mohawk, the 64-year-old horseman expressed doubts that many from Rideau Carleton would relocate to other Ontario tracks.
“They won’t go anywhere,” he said. “They’ll just stop. I [relocated] in 2008 when Blue Bonnets closed. I left home with I think six horses, and maybe one of them was able to compete at Mohawk. It was tough. I had to change everything and it took two or three years.”
He was forced to sell most of his racing and breeding stock. It took six years to sell his farm, at a significant loss.
Fortunately, another 2-year-old filly trotter put Dustin back in the game: Martiniontherocks (5, 1:55.3f; $498,658), who set a stakes record in her 2010 Breeders Crown final at Pocono in a 30-1 upset. Whatever the odds against winning his first Mohawk Million, Dustin can never be counted out.
