Well, it sure didn’t take long for Ricky Macomber Jr. to begin working on his next 3,000 wins.
Macomber guided the six-year-old Palone Ranger mare Wild Wanda to a handy 1:52 victory to kick off her 2017 season on Wednesday night (January 11), scoring by three-parts-of-a-length over the pocket-sitting OK Heavenly, handled by Kevin Wallis. Jets Are On, driven by Wally Hennessey, finished third while Metro Glide was fourth. Arodasi finished fifth in the quintet in a race where positions, once established around turn one, were unchanged the rest of the way.
Coming to the post off of a 1:53.2 win in a qualifying event on New Year’s Eve day, Wild Wanda was sent right to the front from her coveted post five and led at every pole, clocking panels of :28.1, :56.4 and 1:25 before a :27 sprint home sealed the issue — handily.
After the race, Macomber gave high praise to Wild Wanda saying that, “all the credit goes to her tonight. We had the perfect post and she responded with her usual sharp gate speed and that, pretty much, was the story. The fractions suited her just fine tonight and, when we got to the final bend in 1:25, I was very confident she had a :27 final quarter in reserve.”
Trained by Jamie Macomber, Wild Wanda is owned by Mary Jo Rheinheimer along with the Dojea Stables and now has 24 career wins in 82 starts, good for $329,615 in bounty — this after her best season ever in 2016, earning $166,400 on the strength of a 9-11-3 scorecard in 29 starts.
As the 1-5 toteboard favourite, Wild Wanda paid $2.40 to win.
Ricky didn’t stop there.
He won the next three races with Miss Mady ($4.60), Sweet Bet ($9.60) and Bittersweet Best ($3.60), respectively, giving Ricky his “grand slam” and then capped off the evening back of Ahlbback Yankee ($2.80) in the finale for his fifth win.
Miss Mady, also trained by Jamie Macomber, won in gate-to-wire fashion in 1:52.2, equalling her lifetime-best performance. The four-year-old Brother Lost Soul mare is owned by Ricky Macomber Jr. along with Ed Hauck Jr. and James Stonecipher.
Sweet Bet, a recent claim now trained by Jason Robinson for owner Robert Main, also won wire-to-wire, scoring in 1:52.3 — this rugged nine-year-old daughter of Bettors Delight winning for the 38th time during her career stretching 207 starts.
Bittersweet Best, owned by the Eleven Star Stables, gave Jamie Macomber her training “hat trick” as this eight-year-old daughter of Pro Bono Best also led first long stride to last in scoring by three and three-quarter lengths in 1:53.3 for her 22nd career win.
Ahlbback Yankee then gave Jamie Macomber her training "grand slam" and provided husband Ricky with that fifth win on the eight-race program. The nine-year-old daughter of Electric Yankee sweetened the pot further as Jamie Macomber owns this mare, who gained the lead past the opening :28.1 marker and the coasted along through panels of :56.3 and 1:26.1 before holding on to score by a head in 1:55.2.
In the “oooops” department, in Pompano Park's congratulatory remarks about Macomber’s 3,000th win last night, it was incorrectly stated that Ricky and Jamie Macomber have two sons. The Macombers have a son, Nate, 4, and a daughter, Aubrey, 2. Pompano regrets the error.
Racing continues on Saturday night with post time set at 7:20 p.m.
(With files from Pompano Park)