By Bill Finley
Trainer Jonathan Wong, who was hit with a two-year suspension by the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) for a metformin positive, has resurfaced in Louisiana, where he has 15 horses at a private training center but has yet to visit the winner's circle. Wong sent out his first starter in Louisiana on Feb. 13. But the same trainer who had one of the biggest stables in Northern California has struggled there, sending out just five horses without a winner.
The plaintiff states of Louisiana and West Virginia won a preliminary injunction in federal court in July that will keep the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) Authority's rules from being implemented in those two states until a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of HISA gets decided in full. Because he was not under a suspension issued by the Louisiana Racing Commission, Wong is being allowed to compete in the Bayou State.
Fair Grounds, which is owned by Churchill Downs Inc., did not give Wong any stalls but is allowing him to race.
Wong did not start a horse between July 1 and Feb. 13, when he sent out his first Louisiana runner, Desoto's War (Warrior's Reward). He has made just four starts at Fair Grounds and one at Delta Downs.
According to one of his owners, Brent Malmstrom, who is helping with Wong's legal fight, Wong had 141 horses before he was suspended.
Malmstrom and Wong have maintained that the trainer is innocent because the positive for the drug, which is used in humans to treat Type II diabetes, was a matter of environmental contamination.
Wong did not return phone calls from the TDN seeking comment.
“Jonathan Wong may have done some things in the past,” he said. “I can't speak to that. All I can speak to is this: he didn't do this. We don't know where the drug came from. It's odd that at point in time when all this happened almost half of the metformin positives occurred at Horseshoe Indianapolis.”
The horse that tested positive was Heaven and Earth (Gormley) and the positive was found after the filly won a June 1 maiden special weight race at Horseshoe Indianapolis.
Malmstrom acknowledged that this has been a difficult situation for Wong.
“The sad thing about this whole thing is that this cost him his marriage,” he said. “He's got four little children. He's doing whatever he can to survive as I, along with our lawyers, work on the legal side to figure out how to get relief.”
Malmstrom said that most of the horses Wong trained before the suspension have been sent to other trainers.
“He lost his entire business,” he said. “The bulk of the horses he has in Louisiana are mine. I don't turn my back on people when they're at their lowest point in life. Louisiana has been incredibly welcoming and we thank them. People deserve an opportunity to defend themselves and should have the right to earn a living while they are defending themselves. That's a fundamental thing.”
The Fair Grounds meet ends on March 24. Malmstrom said that after Fair Grounds closes Wong will focus on the meet at Evangeline Downs, which opens April 7.
Wong has been training since 2014 and has 1,194 career wins. His best year came in 2021, when he saddled 236 winners and won at a rate of 23%.
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