Rich Fisher

Trenton, NJ — What’s in a name? A whole lot of pop culture references if you’re Steve Jones.

While breeding is a serious business, it doesn’t stop Jones from having a good time. Particularly in naming his horses.

Since 1982 when he and his dad opened Cameo Hills Farm in New York, Jones has named horses after famous athletes, movie lines, catch phrases and fictional characters. Many have stuck, some were changed upon sale, but all featured that trademark Jones whimsy.

“You gotta have a little fun, right?” he said.

Jones has had more than a little. Consider when a foal was produced by Presidential Ball and Miss Easy, he had no choice but to name her Lewinsky.

“I thought that was one of my better names,” he said proudly.

Steve Jones has named horses after famous athletes, movie lines, catch phrases and fictional characters. USTA/Mark Hall photo.

It’s not the kind of out-of-the-box behavior one might expect from someone so steeped in Standardbred tradition. Steve’s father, the late Hall of Fame breeder Hal Jones, worked at numerous farms including Blue Chip Farm, Hanover Shoe Farm, and Lana Lobell Farm. Thus, Steve grew up in the business around some great horses. When he graduated from Delaware Valley College in Doylestown, Pa., in 1982, his family purchased Cameo Hills Farm in Montgomery, N.Y. The farm has bred and raised some of the top horses in New York State and the country.

It would be easy to become full of one’s self owning one of nation’s premiere farms, but Jones finds a way to keep it loose and light when assigning names.

When Johnny Carson died in 2005, he sold horses named after Carson sketch characters Carnac (a psychic), Aunt Blabby (a grumpy senior citizen), Floyd R Turbo (an editorial rebutter) and one of his favorites, Deweycheatumnhowe (a crooked law firm). Deweycheatumnhowe, a Hall of Famer, won the 2008 Hambletonian and was Trotter of the Year.

Deweycheatumnhowe won the 2008 Hambletonian and was Trotter of the Year. USTA/Mark Hall photo.

“The mother I bought from an attorney,” Jones said, referring to Ted Gewertz. “He was buying all of her foals. That was the year I was using all the Johnny Carson names. I said ‘OK that horse is getting the name of the law firm.’ He ended up buying part of Dewey and he was certainly the most successful one.”

Jones is also partial to some of the movie lines he has turned into monikers. One is from The Sting, the 1973 film with Paul Newman and Robert Redford that won the Academy Award for Best Picture. In setting up their mark, the con men told him via a phone call “Place it on Lucky Dan,” which turned into a Jones name.

Then there was the scene from Planes, Trains and Automobiles when John Candy and Steve Martin were forced to share a bed together and Del Griffith (played by Candy) tells Neal Page (played by Martin) his hand is between two pillows, and Page yells out “Those aren’t pillows!”

“So,” Jones said, laughing heartily while recalling it, “I named one Betweentwopillows. I kind of liked that one.”

In selling a crop of Dewey-named horses, Jones named one Deweydefeatstruman, which was the erroneous headline posted in a newspaper after Harry S. Truman actually won the 1948 presidential election.

The majority of the horses have been named after sports stars and sports nobodies, some who are still playing and many from the past.

“I had a client of mine many years ago who named horses Gehrig and Musial, and I worked with a guy a long, long time ago who named a horse Willie Mays,” Jones said. “So I don’t know if it came from them, or what. But with as many as we have to name each year I’m always trying to figure out a name. I don’t mind naming them after sports figures.”

Through his family’s friendship with the Rooney family, Jones is a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. As far as football names go, he not only named one Broadway Joe (after Namath), but another one Bachelors Three, which was the bar (Bachelors III) Namath owned that got NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle upset enough that Namath temporarily retired.

Jones has long been a San Antonio Spurs fan after watching Tim Duncan play for Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament and then go on to lead the Spurs to five NBA titles, and named a yearling Too Much Duncan.

“When the Spurs would beat a team, whoever the team was, I would say to my kids ‘You know why they lost…too much Duncan,’” Jones said. “I really didn’t know too much about him until I got to see him in college. I followed him from afar, I guess you’d say.”

Other basketball names refer to legends such as Wilt Chamberlain (Wilt The Stilt), Jerry West (Zekefromcabincreek), Larry Bird (Hickfromfrenchlick) and Shaquille O’Neal (Shaq Is Back, Hack A Shaq, Baby Shaq). Jones also pays homage to current stars like the Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greek Freak), Steph Curry and Klay Thompson (Splash Brother).

“It’s funny,” Jones said. “I sold three at Goshen two years ago — Zekefromcabincreek, Wilt The Stilt and Hickfromfrenchlick — and they were the three highest priced horses in the sale. They went one, two, and three. I don’t think it had anything to do with the names, but they went well.”

Hickfromfrenchlick won four of seven races in 2018 and earned $138,541. Geri Schwarz photo.

Hickfromfrenchlick had a solid 2-year-old season in 2018, winning four of seven races and earning $138,541 for co-owner/trainer Ray Schnittker.

“He was a pretty good one in New York,” Jones said. “He won the (Lawrence) Sheppard (Pace) and won a few of the races in the Sire Stakes. I know they’ve got high hopes for him.”

Jones is selling one this year with another basketball reference — Send It In Jerome — which is named after former University of Pittsburgh star Jerome Allen.

“He went in for a dunk and tore the backboard down,” Jones said. “Bill Raftery was the announcer and he’s screaming ‘Send it in Jerome!’”

Jones’ allegiances have changed in baseball through the years, depending on where he lived. He started as a Mets fan, switched to the Orioles and is now a Yankees fan, thanks to his son’s rooting interest in the Bronx Bombers along with his friendship with Charlie “Chaz” Keller of the now-defunct Yankeeland Farms in Maryland. Keller is the grandson of former Yankee great Charlie “King Kong” Keller.

Some of the baseball names include Giambi, Ruth And Gehrig, Murderers Row (the 1927 Yankees) and Rizzuto.

“We named one A Rod many years ago, before he fell into disgrace,” Jones said with a laugh.

He named a filly Front Row Amy in honor of a Brewers season-ticket holder always in the front row, and he has also bestowed some obscure or fictional names. One horse was tagged with Suitcase Simpson, named after journeyman Harry “Suitcase” Simpson, who played for five different teams in the 1950s.

“I was having dinner with Charlie Iannazzo, who was one of the owners of Dewey, and (Standardbred public relations legend) John Manzi and they were talking baseball from the ’50s,” Jones said. “Somehow this guy’s name came up, so I said ‘I gotta name a horse after him.’”

Then there was Sidd Finch, the fictitious Mets pitcher who could throw 168 miles per hour according to an April Fool’s hoax story by Sports Illustrated. And who can forget Carl Spackler, the groundskeeper played by Bill Murray who battled gophers in the movie Caddyshack. Several TV characters have also been honored, such as Paulie Walnuts (The Sopranos) and Stretch Cunningham (All In The Family).

One name that needs explaining is Big Game James. Contrary to popular opinion, this does not refer to LeBron James, but James Karinchak, a pitcher in the Cleveland Indians minor league system.

“He played baseball with my son in high school,” Jones said. “James was kind of a superstar in our area, he went to Bryant College, he was drafted and now he’s an aspiring pitcher with the Indians.”

Fillies are not immune to the name game as Jones recently named one Sherry Cervi, a female barrel racer.

With so many colorful names, one must wonder what the buyers think upon purchase.

“Some of them are looked at with a little bit of skepticism,” Jones said. “It’s like ‘Where did you get that from?’ We’re selling Sidd Finch this year, I’m sure some people won’t know where that came from. I’ll be explaining it was a pitcher who throws 200 miles per hour.”

Jones noted some owners keep the names and others change them. The one he liked the most that kept getting changed was Grits N Hard Toast.

“I named it four times until it stuck,” he said. “Ray Schnittker’s wife Janet said ‘Oh my God you named another one that.’ I said I’m using that until it sticks.’”

Of course, Jones had to name a horse after one of his closest friends and best customers.

“Ray Schnittker has bought several horses from us,” Jones said. “I named a horse many years ago Angry Dwarf. Angry Dwarf is named after Ray. I say it to his face, so it can be put in print. I don’t know where that term came from, but somehow it kind of stuck.”