Marie Jones had been contemplating selling off her last few mares and foals for several years, but in the end, her devotion to her horses kept the program active through her final days. The prominent breeder, who alongside her late husband Aaron Jones built an operation that produced multiple Grade I winners and even more influential breeding stock, passed away peacefully at her home on Aug. 5.“In the last couple years, Mrs. Jones's health had been declining,” said Katie Taylor, whose family's Taylor Made Farm has long been home to the Aaron and Marie Jones broodmare band. “She's such a generous person that I think she struggled with leaving any loose ends for her family to have to take care of when she passed. We had toyed back and forth with whether or not we were going to disperse last year. We even had the horses lined up to be entered. But we were talking with her one day and she just broke down in tears and said, 'I love my horses so much. I can't stand to see them go.'”In the end, Jones was able to enjoy one final season as a breeder at the top level of the sport, traveling to Del Mar to watch Ted Noffey (Into Mischief), a colt she bred and then sold for $650,000 to Spendthrift Farm, claim the 2025 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile.“Seeing her in that winner's circle was just amazing,” said Taylor. “No one deserved it more than her in the final chapter. She was one of a kind. A complete lady, a true horsewoman, and someone to look up to.”At the upcoming Keeneland September Sale, the final crop of yearlings bred by Jones will sell in Book 1, followed by a complete dispersal of her mares and foals in November.“It is bittersweet and definitely the end of an era,” Taylor noted. “Their breeding program just cultivated quality. It was very intentional. They were good horsemen and they know what they wanted to do. They set out to breed at the highest level.”Over five decades, the Aaron and Marie Jones program produced Hall of Famer Ashado, champions Speightstown and Riboletta, and multiple Grade I winner Drosselmeyer. The couple also campaigned and later stood Grade I winner Forestry.Following Aaron's passing, Marie chose to step back from racing and shift her focus entirely to commercial breeding.“When Aaron passed, the broodmare band was around 20 and then it has slowly over time gotten smaller and more curated,” explained Taylor. “We were trying to breed outstanding physical, Book 1-type horses. We focused on well-bred mares that had blacktype. Mrs. Jones could buy some beautiful mares. She knew that you have to have it all. You can't sacrifice the physical for the pedigree and you can't sacrifice the pedigree for the physical. She was very clear about what she wanted in her program.”In 2021, Jones purchased Streak of Luck (Old Fashioned) for $620,000. The stakes winner and multiple graded stakes-placed mare was carrying her first foal by Authentic. The following year, Jones bred Streak of Luck to Into Mischief and the resulting foal was Ted Noffey. Following the colt's Breeders' Cup triumph, Streak of Luck sold for $6.2 million at last year's Fasig-Tipton November Sale in foal to Not This Time.Five yearlings bred by Aaron and Marie Jones LLC will sell with the Taylor Made consignment at Keeneland September. Taylor offers a look at each prospect: 2025 c. Not This Time — Sheza Smoke Show (Wilko) Hip 25 is a full-brother to GISW Princess Noor This colt was born I think 12 hours before the Streak of Luck colt, so between the two of them, they were always two exceptional colts that were always compared against each other. For him, he was always a really solid colt, but just kind of plain. In the last 90 days, he's become such an elegant, athletic, charmer of a horse. He's unbelievable right now. I can't wait to see how he continues to develop because he's really just starting to come into his own. 2025 c. Into Mischief — Streak of Luck (Old Fashioned) The half-brother to champion Ted Noffey sells as Hip 54 at the Keeneland September Sale | Kelcey LogesHip 54 is a full-brother to MGISW Ted Noffey From the beginning, he's just been a smart, sweet horse. He's a big guy and we've always thought a lot of him. Then obviously with everything that happened with Ted Noffey last year, we're trying not to give him a complex.We really are proud to bring him out there. Sometimes you bring a full sibling to a horse that's really excellent right now and you're not sure if they hold up to their sibling. But I think he's definitely a great example of what that mare can produce. Both colts have a lot of that Unbridled's Song, Old Fashioned line to them. They're more scopey, two-turn looking colts. This year's colt has maybe matured a bit faster than Ted Noffey did, but in a lot of ways they're very similar. 2025 f. Not This Time — Sweet Kisses (Carpe Diem)Hip 59 is a half-sister to stakes winners Donut God (Into Mischief) and Hammond (Charlatan) Sweet Kisses is probably my favorite of all of them. I connect with her a lot because all of Mrs. Jones's horses are always raised together at Taylor Made and so she was the one filly with four colts last year. She's a tough cookie and is extremely athletic. Watching her out in the field, she's got that grit to her. All the fillies take off running and no one is getting ahead of her. The mare's first two foals are both stakes winners at two and this filly seems very precocious as well. She's just something special. Marie Jones in the winner's circle after Ted Noffey's Breeders' Cup victory | Breeders' Cup Eclipse Sportswire2025 c. Into Mischief — Enchanted Ghost (Ghostzapper)Hip 208 is out of dual SW Enchanted Ghost, a half-sister to MGSW Selflessly (More Than Ready)We have two Into Mischief colts in this crop and this one is definitely more of the heavy-muscled, gorgeous, stout Into Mischief that we all know and love. He's more of a Commandment type of Into Mischief and he's very elegant and smart.We brought the mare to Tapit several times in a row. She had a Not This Time last year that was a very nice colt that sold well. He's in training with Steve Asmussen right now. We hadn't tried this cross with this mare and I think physically it worked out amazing. He's a heck of a colt. 2025 c. Tapit — Golden Curl (Curlin)Hip 236 is out of SW and GSP Golden CurlAs Tapits go, he's a lot more forward at this age than you see a lot of them. Tapits can be big colts and it takes a while for them to grow into themselves, but he's been very fast maturing. He's got a great shape to him already and he's very precocious-looking to me. He reminds me a lot of Golden Curl. He's strong and has a great hindquarter to him. He's a great colt to be around. This morning as we were out taking videos, he was the ham of the show. I've been around a lot of Tapits obviously with Mrs. Jones, who had a breeding right to him, and I think he might be my favorite that she's ever bred.The post Final Crop of Marie Jones Yearlings Point to Keeneland Book 1 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.