ARCADIA, Calif. – Just when you think you’ve seen everything racing has to offer in trainers, from Hirsch Jacobs to Wayne Lukas, along comes Richard Mandella to add a new dimension to the craft, lift it to a new height, and push it almost into the realm of the unbelievable.
On the single biggest day of racing, featuring eight races worth $14 million, where the competition is fit to kill, Richard Mandella won four of them, a feat that towers above all in the history of the Cup.
Until yesterday, Lukas held the title, with three winners in 1988. But by mid-afternoon yesterday, Mandella had overtaken him while his horses won an eye-popping $4.5 million in purses, another record.
“I can’t describe how I feel,” said Mandella, a 52-year-old Californian. “I’m still in shock.
“In 1993, I won two Cup races and two races on the undercard. I could never believe this could happen again; but it has, bigger and better.”
Richard Mandella, superstar.
His historic winning binge yesterday would not surprise too many in the turf world. His resume boasts numerous training titles, stakes wins too many to count, induction into the Hall of Fame, a national reputation for sharpshooting, and is remembered (among other things) for engineering a huge upset in 1996 when he saddled Dare And Go to snap Cigar’s 16-race winning streak at Del Mar.
Not bad for the son of a blacksmith.
Mandella started his unforgettable streak when Halfbridled, under the sweetest ride by Julie Krone, established herself as the nation’s leading juvenile filly when she trounced the competition by overcoming a hopeless gate post and wide trip.
Well, she was the 2-1 favorite and it was expected.
Then Mandella unleashed Action This Day to win the Juvenile at 25-1. The colt had only just broken his maiden, yet he annihilated his rivals, reflecting again Mandella’s astute judgment and deft placing. He didn’t fool some of us with this horse.
Next he sprang the 14-1 grass surprise Johar in the mile-and-a-half Turf, taking on the formidable European brigade of High Chaparral, Falbrav and Sulamani. Again, the shrewd placement and training. Those who follow Mandella were rewarded with a dead heat.
Finally, the crowning achievement of all. He brought Pleasantly Perfect to the $4 million Classic off an astonishing win in the nine-furlong Goodwood Handicap at Santa Anita earlier this month off a seven-month layoff. This win showcased his skill again with horses.
Many of us thought Pleasantly Perfect would bounce in the Classic. Some thought. The customers sent him off at 14-1. That’s when everyone learned never to underestimate a Mandella horse, no matter what the price.
While Medaglia d’Oro and Congaree ran themselves into the ground on the Classic lead, Pleasantly Perfect came from eighth to swoop on them in the stretch and leave them for dead. Medaglia, the 5-2 favorite, just like last year, held on for a well-beaten second, while Dynever plugged on to pick up the pieces in third, just ahead of Congaree.
The Classic, as feared, was a disaster for Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide. The horse had no business running in this race, which is bad enough. But he wrecked any chance Perfect Drift had when he ran wide on the turn and carried Perfect Drift off the track, an insurmountable handicap.
“Funny Cide was real rank and he just kept knocking me out and knocking me out,” said Perfect Drift’s jockey, Gary Stevens. “He’s a helluva horse to put up with that and still run on as he did.”
It was pathetic to see Funny Cide, the great hero of the Triple Crown, so humiliated. He was beaten 15 lengths. The only horse behind him was last year’s winner Volponi, who ran the worst race of his life to finish last.
This Cup showed again why racing is at once an ecstasy-agony game to play. While Mandella was soaring over the universe, the greatest winning trainer of the era, Bobby Frankel, sank to his lowest depths.
He couldn’t take a trick. Sightseek, his odds-on favorite in the Distaff, didn’t run a lick and finished off the board. He saddled the Mile favorite, Peace Rules, who finished stone last.
In the sprint, his 2-1 favorite Aldebaran finished sixth after being tailed off early, while his other runner, Midas Eyes, finished eighth. He ran two in the Filly and Mare, Tates Creek and Heat Haze, and neither could get into the money.
Finally, Medaglia d’Oro, the Classic favorite, coming to the race off an eight- week layoff, faltered through the stretch, as he did last year after a nine-week layoff.
Bobby went home without a winner. All he could say was, “I don’t have anything to say right now.”
It’s a lousy way to start a honeymoon as Bobby and his new bride Bonita head off to Barbados after their recent wedding.