Barn Tour: Jonathan Thomas does a lot with a little

By many measures, Jonathan Thomas is having another fine year.

He has won four graded stakes with four different horses, and he's got a 21% win rate going. And he's done this with a string that has averaged about 20 horses for the year, a number that's down "big time" from last year.

There's the rub. He'd like to have more, and he doesn't understand why he doesn't.

"I wish I did so I could do something to improve on numbers," Thomas told Horse Racing Nation on Tuesday from Santa Anita.

"The game's not about being fair," Thomas said. "I'm all ears about what to do. I'm not really sure. Our staffs are right up there with the top five guys. … I worked for a super trainer with Todd (Pletcher), and I love the guy. I don't begrudge anyone, and I benefited from working under a big corporation. We don't have a lot of claiming horses. 

"If you're trying to chip away at the top, we don't have a lot of claiming horses, I don't have any claiming owners. It just doesn't seem like there's a lot of room at the top level. And the supply and demand and all that stuff, and there's just not many horses going around.

"But I was surprised," he said. "We had a very, very good year last year, and I thought my phone would ring a little bit more, but it really didn't."

So he's doing what he can with what he has, and he just moved his string to Santa Anita from Del Mar. He wanted to be at Turfway Park too but was not given any stalls there. Thomas bought a house in nearby Georgetown, Ky., last year, and his family is there. The only Kentucky track that has ever given him stalls is Keeneland, he said, and that's a possibility for the spring. "We hope to have that kind of quality," he said.

Thomas clearly has talent in his stable, and he provided updates for HRN's Barn Tour series.

Truly Quality. The 5-year-old gelding by Quality Road won the Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup on Friday for the second consecutive year. Before that, he returned from a six-month layoff because of "nagging issues" and finished fourth in the Del Mar Handicap (G2). "We're really proud of him. He's kind of had a problematic six months, but we thought he showed a lot of fortitude and heart getting the job done the other day. Very happy with him." The listed John B. Connally Turf Cup at Sam Houston on Jan. 24 is a target for him.

Mrs. Astor. The 5-year-old mare by Lookin At Lucky won the Red Carpet (G3) at Del Mar on Nov. 23 for the second year in a row and finished in the money in all five starts in between, including three stakes wins. "Very proud of her, especially for those two to come back and win, back-to-back years, those races. I think she's the only one in history to do it, and Truly Quality's the first horse in 26 years to do what he did. She came out of the race great. We were expecting that from her, where with Truly Quality, we were going to give him a free pass if he didn't show up. She's going to run one or two more times, and then she will be retired to be bred as a 6-year-old." Possibilities include the Robert J. Frankel (G3), which she won last year, and the listed Astra. "We could contemplate the Pegasus (Filly & Mare Turf, G2) if we're invited. … It might be worth just kind of going for a harder reach or a bigger race at this stage. She's so accomplished, that pedigree page is going to have a lot of black type on it."

Rashmi. The 4-year-old Oscar Performance filly won the Megahertz (G3) in February and was third in the Buena Vista (G2) in March, then was given a rest after nine starts in nine months. "We needed to give her a little more time so we could start her in California and then kind of have her really fit and ready going into the spring, with some of the bigger races back in Kentucky." She'll return to Thomas in about two weeks.

Tirupati. The 4-year-old Mitole filly won the Wilshire (G3) in March after finishing second by a head in the Buena Vista (G2). In her most recent start, she was seventh in the Royal Heroine (G3) on April 26. She worked once after that, in May, but hasn't raced or worked since. As with Rashmi, Thomas expects her to return in a few weeks.

Will Then. This 3-year-old filly by War of Will is 0-for-5 since her last win in March and finished fifth last out in the Red Carpet. "Will Then, we thought, ran respectable against older fillies going a mile and three(-eighths)." She is pointed to the American Oaks (G1) on Dec. 26 "because she's a 3-year-old filly and she's in California." Winner of the Jimmy Durante (G3) last year, "I think she was a very good 2-year-old, and she kind of was one of those horses that didn't make the 2- to 3-year-old leap. She kind of stayed at the same level she did at 2. She just needs to get lucky with a trip, and she's a sound filly. She enjoys racing. So we just need to get lucky. If we could finish third in American Oaks and get some Grade 1 black type, that would be huge for her."

As Catch Can. This 3-year-old Mo Town filly earned her first stakes win last out in the listed Old Dominion Oaks in September. "We looked at a couple of different things. She is a Florida-bred. We were going to run in Kentucky, but we didn't do it because you're forfeiting so much purse money." So she was given a small break, and she's back at work at Del Mar. "I think we could look at the Bobby Frankel with her."

Miss Watermelon. This 2-year-old filly by Cairo Prince is owned by Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy's Go Go Greys Stable. She debuted at Keeneland with a seventh-place effort going 1 1/16 miles on turf in October then was second to Nimah, Bob Baffert's odds-on favorite, last out in going 6 1/2 furlongs on dirt at Del Mar. "She's been a really fun addition to the barn. Obviously, Dave needs no introduction. He's been a great owner. The filly really surprised us with a couple of great works here at Del Mar on the dirt. And I though she ran very, very respectfully, finishing second to that good filly of Baffert's. Looked like she wants a little more ground. We're going to look at a race at Santa Anita or Gulfstream going a mile sometime the end of December.