Trainer Lynch has first win with Wendell Fong in Fire Plug Stakes

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Natalia Lynch had to enjoy her first victory as a trainer from afar.

When Wendell Fong rallied from last to get up by a neck over Share the Ride in Saturday’s $100,000 Fire Plug Stakes at Laurel Park, it represented the first victory as a trainer for the 26-year-old Lynch, who went out on her own last summer.

Lynch, who lives on Long Island and is based at Belmont Park, said she couldn’t attend the races at Laurel because it would have meant quarantining for a period of time. Since she gets on many of her own horses in the morning, missing time from the barn wasn’t an option.

Lynch said she watched the race from home with her mom and 4-year-old son Joseph. Lynch said after the race she received a call from Joe Hardoon, the racing manager for owner Al Gold’s Gold Square Racing, and they were both crying.

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“Joe facetimed me after the race and me, my mom and Joe were all just sobbing our eyes out,” Lynch said. “My son was yelling ‘Wendell Fong!’ and was like ‘Why is everyone crying?’ ”

Lynch had 16 starters with four second-place finishes before she got her first victory. On Jan. 9, Fox Red was beaten a nose in a claiming race at Aqueduct. Last fall, Momza also was beaten a nose at Belmont.

She believes it was appropriate Wendell Fong was her first winner.

“Everyone who knows how much that horse means to me, we all think all those seconds, that I didn’t get there, it was all because it was supposed to be him,” Lynch said. “I honestly think he was meant to be the first one.”

Though Lynch has been training on her own since only last summer, she has been around Wendell Fong from the beginning of his career. As an assistant to Jeremiah Englehart, Lynch helped prepare Wendell Fong for his debut victory, which came at Laurel on Dec. 29, 2018.

In an interview with Daily Racing Form before Wendell Fong raced at Belmont last fall, Lynch said the horse “is special to me. He’s got a presence about him. When you’re around him he leaves something with you.”

Lynch said she was nervous about Wendell Fong breaking from the 1 hole because he was feeling so good and she feared he would break running under Sheldon Russell.

“Sheldon did an awesome job,” Lynch said. “I told him to let him kind of back up a little bit. He rode him perfect.”

Wendell Fong earned a career-best 99 Beyer Speed Figure for the Fire Plug effort. Though that race could be used as a steppingstone toward the Grade 3 $250,000 General’s Stake at Laurel Park on Feb. 13, Lynch said Wendell Fong would likely skip that race.

“I want to give him a few weeks of some down time, let him be happy and see how he comes back,” Lynch said. “He kind of deserves a little bit of a break. It’s good to see his confidence back.”

Share the Ride, who was beaten a neck by Wendell Fong, will be nominated to the Grade 3 Toboggan here on Jan. 31, according to Antonio Arriaga, the horse’s regular trainer. Share the Ride raced Saturday under trainer Miguel Penaloza’s name. Arriaga said Sunday he is expected to get the horse back.