Curlin, Ashado, Solis, Jones elected to Hall of Fame

Ashado, bred in Kentucky and owned by Starlight Stables, Paul Saylor and

Johns Martin, won 12 of her 21 career starts with purse earnings of $3,931,440.

She was named champion three-year-old filly in 2004 and champion older female in

2005.

Trained by Todd Pletcher, Ashado won the Spinaway, Schuylerville and

Demoiselle as a two-year-old in 2003. She compiled a record of 4-1-1 and

earnings of $610,800 in six starts that year. At three, she won the Breeders'

Cup Distaff, Kentucky Oaks, Coaching Club American Oaks, Fair Grounds Oaks and

Cotillion Handicap en route to a ledger of 5-2-1 and earnings of $2,259,640 in

eight starts that year. In her final season, at age four in 2005, Ashado won the

Go for Wand Handicap, Ogden Phipps Handicap and Beldame. She finished 3-1-1 with

earnings of $1,061,000 in seven starts that year.

Solis, 50, who is closing in on 5,000 career victories (he has 4,986 through

Thursday), ranks ninth all time in purse earnings with $234,981,821 and 30th in

wins. In a career that began in 1982, Solis, a native of Panama City, Panama,

has won 321 graded stakes and 633 overall stakes. He has won three Breeders' Cup

races, including the 2003 Classic with Pleasantly Perfect. Solis won the 1986

Preakness, as well as seven other graded stakes, with champion Snow Chief.

Major victories for Solis include multiple editions of the Santa Anita Derby,

Florida Derby, Hollywood Derby, Norfolk, Hollywood Futurity, Santa Monica

Handicap, Hollywood Turf Cup, Yellow Ribbon, Charles Whittingham Handicap, Eddie

Read Handicap and Shoemaker Mile, among others. He has also won the Dubai World

Cup, Pacific Classic, Santa Anita Handicap, Haskell Invitational, Secretariat,

Manhattan Handicap, Jockey Club Gold Cup and Carter Handicap, among others.

The winner of 18 riding titles on the Southern California circuit, Solis won

the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 1997. He won 11 stakes races with

champion Kona Gold, including the Breeders' Cup Sprint. Other notable mounts for

Solis include Criminal Type, Bertrando, Jewel Princess, Timber Country, The

Wicked North, Pleasant Tap, Victory Gallop, Megahertz, Dare and Go, Brother

Derek, After Market, Flat Out and Magical Fantasy.

Jones, 69, won 1,465 races and had purse earnings of $52,672,611 in a career

that spanned from 1975 to 1996. He won 102 graded stakes and 233 overall stakes.

A native of Long Beach, California, Jones trained 104 stakes-winning horses,

including Turkoman, the 1986 champion older male. Jones won 15 meet titles on

the Southern California circuit, including four at Santa Anita, where he ranks

sixth all time in wins (576) and seventh in stakes victories (72). He set a

record with 47 wins at Santa Anita in 1976, surpassing the previous standard of

44 established by his father, Farrell Jones. At Hollywood Park, Jones ranks 13th

all time in wins (463) and 10th in stakes victories (58). He also won 17 stakes

at Del Mar, including the inaugural Pacific Classic with Hall of Famer Best Pal

in 1991.

Jones saddled Turkoman to victories in the Marlboro Cup, Widener Handicap and

Oaklawn Handicap in his 1986 championship season. Jones twice won the signature

handicap in California, the Santa Anita Handicap, with Best Pal and Stuka. Along

with the Pacific Classic and Santa Anita Handicap, Jones trained Best Pal to

wins in the Oaklawn Handicap, Hollywood Gold Cup, Swaps Stakes and Strub Stakes.

Jones trained Kostroma to a world turf record of 1:43 4/5 in the 1 1/8-mile

Las Palmas Handicap at Santa Anita, sent out Time to Explode to equal a world

record of 1:19 2/5 at Hollywood and conditioned Beautiful Glass to a

five-furlong track mark of :55 4/5 at Hollywood. Other major victories for Jones

include the Mother Goose, Santa Barbara Handicap, Hollywood Oaks, Del Mar

Futurity, Hollywood Futurity, Yellow Ribbon, Apple Blossom Handicap, San Antonio

Handicap, La Brea, San Felipe, Santa Anita Oaks, NYRA Mile, Milady Handicap,

Fantasy, Californian and Norfolk, among others. Other notable horses trained by

Jones include Quiet American, Wishing Well, Lakeway, By Land by Sea, Fali Time,

Radar Ahead, Eleven Stitches and Lightning Mandate.

The contemporary electees were chosen from a nationwide voting panel

comprised of 185 racing writers, broadcasters, industry officials and historians

from a group of nine finalists selected by the Hall of Fame's Nominating

Committee.

Results of the Hall of Fame's Historic Review process, which examines

candidates who have not been active within the past 25 years, will be announced

in May. Results of the Pillars of the Turf election process, which honors

individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to Thoroughbred racing in

a leadership or pioneering capacity at the highest national level, will be

announced in June.

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