Revamped Thomas barn completes 4-for-4 weekend

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Jonathan Thomas isn’t perfect. Just look at his NCAA bracket.

“No good,” he said with a laugh.

Thomas was, however, perfect last weekend. His 26-horse stable based at Payson Park, some two hours north of Gulfstream Park, went 4 for 4, with three of them winning at Gulfstream (two Saturday, one Sunday) and the other on Saturday at Laurel Park in Maryland.

“It was a pretty big deal for us,” Thomas said. “My numbers are down from where they’d been and I’ve got a great crew right now, so we’re really happy. It’s hard to win one sometimes, let alone three in a day.”

Thomas, 42, is in something of revamp mode. In recent years, he had operated primarily out of Bridlewood Farm in Ocala, Fla., overseeing about 250 yearlings while also training 50-plus active runners. But that business model was not working the way he wanted.

“I was basically doing two things at once,” he said. “I wanted to do one thing really well as opposed to being average at two things. I guess I did a poor job of letting people know the decision I made last summer in that regard – I didn’t put out a press release or anything. A lot of people still think I’m running off the farm, but I’m a racetrack trainer now.”

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Thomas soon will move his horses to Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., where he has a stall allotment of 24 for the spring meet (April 8-29) and beyond. He’ll race mostly in Kentucky before branching off between Saratoga, Monmouth Park, or Colonial Downs, “depending on how our results in the spring dictate we move,” he said.

Thomas, a former longtime assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher, burst onto the national scene with Catholic Boy, the $2.1 million earner whose six graded wins from 2017-19 included such diverse events as the Remsen, Belmont Derby, Travers, and Dixie. Thomas only began training on his own in late 2016, with four straight winners at Gulfstream in the spring and summer of 2017 being part of an 8-for-11 tear.

“All those were spaced fairly far apart,” he said. “Saturday was the first time we’d won three in one day.”

Thomas, a Virginia native and avid college basketball fan, said his bracket blew up when Kentucky and Virginia Tech lost early.

“I love the NCAA tournament,” he said, “and I’ve got a whole lot of friends in Lexington that are taking the UK loss pretty bad. Hopefully Keeneland starting up will get everybody through it.”