Wong scores perfect triple on Thursday
Prior to Thursday, trainer Jonathan Wong had recorded seven three-win days this year – five times at Golden Gate and once at Santa Rosa and Turf Paradise.
On Thursday, Wong won three races with as many starters at Del Mar. Wong has won eight races at the summer meeting, leaving him tied for seventh in the standings, five behind leader Phil D’Amato.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” he said. “Unbelievable.”
Wong swept the early double with favored Prayer of Jabez ($4.40) and the first-time starter Sally’s Sassy ($27.40), who drew into the field from the also-eligible list.
“I thought the horse in the first was very live,” Wong said. “The first-time starter, I didn’t think she would win. I thought she’d get a good race.”
In Thursday’s seventh race, the Wong-trained Cees Get Degrees disputed the pace and won by 2 3/4 lengths to end a six-race losing streak. He paid $11.20 to win.
“The horse always trains like a good horse, but he never put out in the afternoon,” Wong said.
On Friday, Wong, 33, has three starters at Del Mar and two at Golden Gate. At Del Mar, She’s So Pretty starts in the second race, A Little Bit Crazy runs in the sixth race, and Man Oh Man is part of a field of eight in the seventh race.
Wong, the leading trainer at Golden Gate Fields earlier this year, has four starters at Del Mar on Saturday – Holiday Arousal in the first race, Stanford Man in the fourth race, Mask Off in the sixth race, and Lexington Humor in the seventh.
“Hopefully we can get a couple from there,” Wong said.
Holiday Arousal won at Santa Rosa on Aug. 4.
Stanford Man finished last of 10 at Del Mar on July 31 and will race as a gelding for the first time.
“I was expecting him to run a better race,” Wong said. “He didn’t show much.”
Mask Off will start for the first time since November in a $50,000 claimer for statebred maidens. “He’s training good up north,” Wong said.
Lexington Humor was second in an allowance race on Aug. 6 and returns in a race at that level.
On Sunday, Empire House starts for Wong in the Grade 3 Rancho Bernardo Handicap for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs. A win would be a shock even though Empire House won the Governor’s Cup Stakes for fillies and mares at six furlongs at Sacramento on July 23.
“We’ll try to take back and make one run and try to pick up a piece,” Wong said. “I’d be happy if we ran third. That would be nice.”
The $150,000 Rancho Bernardo Handicap is led by the New Mexico stakes winner Slammed, the easy winner of an allowance race on July 28 in her California debut, and Edgeway, who won the 2021 Rancho Bernardo.
“Slammed, the way she ran the other day, that was freakish,” Wong said.
Recently, Wong said his goal for the Del Mar meeting was five winners. That needed revision after Thursday, and may need another modification after this weekend.
“If we can get to 10 we’d be happy,” Wong said. “It’s exceeded expectations.”