July, 2020 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Mandella May Try Pacific Classic Next After United’s Eddie Read Score

Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella fired one of his big guns Sunday at Del Mar near San Diego, Calif., and the boom shook the grounds and might reverberate forward to the shore track's biggest race of the season.

The veteran trainer gave Flavien Prat a leg up on his turf ace United for the $200,000 Eddie Read Stakes at nine furlongs on grass and watched him walk his beat for an impressive half-length tally.

Then he shook up a couple of turf writers afterwards when he said he's seriously considering Del Mar's signature race – the $500,000, Grade 1 TVG Pacific Classic – as a next start for his ace even though the big chestnut son of Giant's Causeway has never run on the dirt.

“…this horse is training so well on the dirt, month after month, that I'm going to consider running him in the Pacific Classic,” Mandella said immediately following the victory. “I've been thinking all summer about it.”

That surprise set up a potential showdown between possibly the best grass horse on the grounds with possibly the best dirt horse in Maximum Security, who won his TVG Pacific Classic prep yesterday in a photo-finish thriller in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap.

United ran the Grade 2 Read distance in 1:46.71 and, as the 7/5 favorite, paid $4.80, $3.40 and $2.60 across the board. The $120,000 share of the winner's purse pushed his bankroll to $1,453,549 for owner Larry, Nanci and Jaime Ross, who race under the name LNJ Foxwoods.

Finishing second in the Read was Red Baron's Barn and Rancho Temescal's Sharp Samurai and third was CYBT, Gevertz, Gitomer, et al's Neptune's Storm.

United, a 5-year-old gelding, is racing in some of the best form of his life. He's now three-for-three on the year after winning a pair of Grade 2 turf tests at Santa Anita earlier in the year.

Mandella, it is recalled, surprised folks at Del Mar previously in 2015 when he unexpectedly entered his filly Beholder in the TVG Pacific Classic against the boys and she proceeded to towrope them by more than eight lengths in a stunning performance.

The trainer has four wins in the Pacific Classic already.

FLAVIEN PRAT (United, winner) – “The race came up perfect. He broke real well and we got a great spot. We went along fine and when I asked him, he just went on with it. When you ride a really good horse like this, it makes things easier. Good horses do good things; they put you in good spots. It's all easier with his kind.”

RICHARD MANDELLA (United, winner) – “We ran him short (less distance) just to pick his head up. Sometimes you run them long too many times they get stale. But this horse is training so well on the dirt, month after month, I'm going to consider running him in the Pacific Classic. (United has run 12 times on turf and twice on synthetics in his career). I've been thinking all summer about it. We'll think about the Del Mar Handicap on turf, too, but if he keeps training on dirt as well as he has been…”

FRACTIONS: :23.88 :47.84 1:11.68 1:35.27 1:46.71

The victory in the Eddie Read was the third stakes win of the session so far for rider Prat and his third in the race itself. He now has 47 stakes wins at Del Mar.

The victory in the Eddie Read was the first stakes score of the meet for trainer Mandella, but his third in the Read. He now has 65 stakes wins at Del Mar, sixth most among all trainers.

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Baffert On Maximum Security: ‘I Only Had Him About 80 Percent”

Maximum Security was “good” Sunday morning, following an all-out effort for a nose victory at Del Mar in Saturday's Grade 2, $150,000 San Diego Handicap, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert reported.

“I actually thought he was pretty good right after the race being that I only had him about 80 percent,” Baffert said. “I didn't think he'd have to do a stop-and-go movement (during the race) but he showed what a great horse he is.”

Making his first start for Baffert, first in five months, and under new jockey Abel Cedillo, Maximum Security vied with Midcourt for the lead through the first quarter in :23.74, dropped back to third place, 2 ½ lengths behind Midcourt at the half-mile mark, rallied to draw even with an eighth of a mile to go and prevailed by a nose at the end of the 1 1/16-mile race.

“It's a good starting point, we learned a lot about the horse, now we're caught up and he's ready to go,” Baffert said. Rather than “go,” however, Baffert's inclination is to “stay” at Del Mar for the $500,000, Grade 1, 1 1/4-mile TVG Pacific Classic on August 22. Even though there figure to be pressures, subtle and unsubtle, to exercise other options. The Woodward Stakes at Saratoga is the same purse and distance as the Pacific Classic two weeks later on the calendar.

“The Pacific Classic or the Woodward, depending ….but I like the Pacific Classic,” Baffert said. “He brings his racetrack with him. He's got a lot of will to win, he's courageous and a smart horse. There's just something about him, he's got a lot of will to win. He's got a lot of W's by his name and there's a reason for that.”

John Shirreffs, trainer of Midcourt, said his 5-year-old gelding showed no ill effects from a fully game try for a sixth victory in 12 starts.

“We are, of course, very proud of his race,” Shirreffs said via text. “It was a flip of a coin who would hit the wire with his head down.” There are no immediate plans regarding a next race.

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McKinzie Entered In Bing Crosby After Sharp Breeze At Del Mar

Post positions were drawn and fields were set Sunday for three stakes on an 11-race card next Saturday at Del Mar near San Diego, Calif.

The most surprising, and biggest development, was the entry of multiple graded stakes-winning McKinzie in the Grade 1, $250,000 Bing Crosby Stakes, a six-furlong main track run that often determines the top sprinter of the meeting.

Trainer Bob Baffert watched McKinzie zip through a five-furlong work in 1:00.80 Sunday morning before entering the 5-year-old son of Street Sense, a winner of seven graded stakes and more than $3.4 million, in the Crosby.

McKinzie, with graded stakes wins from 7 furlongs to 1 1/8 miles on his record, will be tasked at the shortest distance of his career. Owned by Karl Watson, Mike Pegram and Paul Weitman and named for the late racing executive Brad McKinzie, the bay horse won his racing debut at seven furlongs at Los Alamitos on October 28, 2017. He notched a Grade 1 score at the same distance in the Malibu at Santa Anita on December 26, 2018 and a Grade 2 in the seven-furlong Triple Bend there in June.

Baffert doesn't expect cutting back by an eighth of a mile would be a problem.

“He's got speed. All good horses have speed,” Baffert said. “The only good horse of mine that couldn't run short was Real Quiet.” Real Quiet overcame his “shortcomings” by winning the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and very nearly the Belmont Stakes.

The field of 10 from the rail: Lexitonian (Drayden Van Dyke); Anyportinastorm (Juan Hernandez); Desert Law (Victor Espinoza); McKinzie (Mike Smith); P R Radio Star (Mario Gutierrez); Fashionably Fast (Tiago Pereira); Law Abidin Citizen (Abel Cedillo); Wildman Jack (Umberto Rispoli); Collusion Illusion (Flavien Prat), and Heartwood (Edwin Maldonado).

Also next Saturday, the $100,000 Shared Belief Stakes, a Kentucky Derby points qualifier, has six signed up to go, featuring Santa Anita Derby winner Honor A.P.

The field from the rail: Uncle Chuck (Drayden Van Dyke); Thousand Words (Abel Cedillo); Anneau d'Or (Victor Espinoza); Kiss Today Goodbye (Umberto Rispoli); Honor A.P. (Mike Smith), and Cezanne (Flavien Prat).

On the undercard is the $100,000 CTBA Stakes for California-bred 2-year-old fillies. It attracted seven fillies that have shown promise in one or two starts.

The field from the rail: Big Andy (Flavien Prat); Governor Goteven (Tiago Pereira); Reign of Fire (Drayden Van Dyke); Righteously (Mario Gutierrez); Jasmin Chieftain (Juan Hernandez); Love Wins (Abel Cedillo), and I'm So Anna (Ricardo Gonzalez).

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Maximum Security’s Return Doesn’t Answer Many Questions

The Week in Review, by Bill Finley

Just about everyone was prepared to either love or hate the performance of Maximum Security (New Year’s Day) in the GII San Diego H. Saturday at Del Mar. Either he would come back and dominate or he would struggle in his first performance outside of the notorious Jason Servis barn. There didn’t appear to be much room for a gray area.

But that’s where things have landed. He was good enough to win but not so good that he proved beyond any doubt that he is the same horse as he was throughout last year and when winning the $20-million Saudi Cup in February.

The optimist can point to a strangely run race in which Maximum Security set the early pace, was taken back by substitute jockey Abel Cedillo and dropped back to third. That’s not exactly the easiest way to win a race, but Maximum Security had a second run in him and just nipped Midcourt (Midnight Lute) by a nose. He showed a lot of determination. Plus, it was his first race in nearly five months and new trainer Bob Baffert admitted Sunday that he didn’t have Maximum Security fully cranked up.

“I actually thought he was pretty good right after the race being that I only had him about 80%,” Baffert said. “I didn’t think he’d have to do a stop-and-go movement [during the race] but he showed what a great horse he is.”

Baffert added that he considered the San Diego a small step in the process.

“It’s a good starting point, we learned a lot about the horse, now we’re caught up and he’s ready to go,” he said

Yet, it wasn’t unreasonable to expect something better than a nose victory in a Grade II race. This is the horse who was last year’s champion 3-year-old and right after the Saudi Cup was widely considered the best horse in training. The Maximum Security that won the GI Cigar Mile H., the Saudi Cup and crossed the wire first in the GI Kentucky Derby would have crushed the type of horses he faced in the San Diego.

That horse, of course, was trained by Servis, and every time one of his former horses races, everyone is left to wonder if they will perform for new trainers who are not using performance-enhancing drugs.

All of which is why one should neither write Maximum Security off or declare that he is back. There are just too many questions and there is plenty of time for them to be answered.

Baffert mentioned the GI Woodward S. at Saratoga as a possibility for Maximum Security, but it’s much more likely that he will go next in the GI Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 22.

“He’s got a lot of will to win, he’s courageous and a smart horse,” Baffert said. “There’s just something about him, he’s got a lot of will to win. He’s got a lot of W’s by his name and there’s a reason for that.”

But, for Maximum Security, the goal now goes beyond winning. He needs to not only win the Pacific Classic but to do it impressively and show everyone that he is the one to beat in the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic.

As for the San Diego, I’ll give him a B- for a grade. That doesn’t mean there’s not an A+ performance yet to come.

Still No News Out of Saudi Arabia

It’s been 138 days since the running of the Saudi Cup and 129 days since Jason Servis was among a long list of individuals indicted for allegedly doping their horses. That should be more than enough time for Saudi racing officials to have concluded their investigation and determine whether or not Maximum Security will be disqualified and the purse redistributed. The ultimate decision may rest on whether or not any illegal medications were found in Maximum Security’s system after the race, but those tests should have been concluded months ago.

What’s going on? Another week has gone by without any answers.

Here’s what Director of Strategy and International Racing for the Jockey Club Of Saudi Arabia Tom Ryan told the TDN in an email last week: “Work on the Maximum Security investigation continues. At the moment it looks like we will be able to issue an official statement as a means of an update over the next week or so.”

Will Volatile and Vekoma Meet Up?

The expectations for Volatile (Violence) were so high coming into the GI Alfred Vanderbilt S. Saturday at Saratoga that not everyone was raving about his victory. A lot did go his way. Rival Whitmore (Pleasantly Perfect) broke through the gate prior to the start, which likely compromised his chances. And Volatile was somehow allowed to set about as slow a pace as you will ever see for a Grade I sprint race. The first quarter went in 23.46 and the half was completed in 46.67 before Volatile won by 1 1/4 lengths.

But that doesn’t mean this wasn’t a test for a horse who had never even run in a graded stakes race before, no less a Grade I. His three opponents had earned a combined $6,091,100 and Volatile beat them decisively. After campaigning Mitole (Eskendereya), who ran an uncharacteristically poor race last year in the Vanderbilt when third, trainer Steve Asmussen may once again have the best sprinter in the country.

But there’s at least one outstanding horse standing between Volatile and an Eclipse Award and that is Vekoma (Candy Ride {Arg}), the winner of the GI Runhappy Carter H. and the Gi Runhappy Metropolitan H. The Aug. 29 GI Forego at Saratoga seems like a logical spot for both Vekoma and Volatile, and if both show up, that may be the race of the meet.

Keeping An Eye on Kentucky’s COVID-19 Situation

For now, spectators will be allowed to attend the Kentucky Derby, but one has to wonder if that is about to change.

Churchill Downs made the announcement June 24 that it has received permission from Governor Andy Beshear to allow fans to attend the Derby week races during a short September meet at Churchill. At the time, the state was doing quite well in its fight against the coronavirus. According to the New York Times, on June 24 there were only 199 new cases of coronavirus in the state. On Sunday, 836 new cases were reported, the second highest total since the outbreak began.

“We’re not playing around with the numbers that we’re seeing,” Beshear said.

Had there been that many cases on a daily basis back in June, it seems highly unlikely that Beshear would have given the green light to having fans. Churchill has said that the amount of people allowed to watch will be limited, but haven’t said what sort of number they are targeting.

Around 50,000 seems like a reasonable estimate, which would be a public gathering that would be unprecedented since COVID-19 became a fact of life. Considering what’s going on, not just in Kentucky but around the country, it’s hard to imagine that happening. Beshear certainly has reason to reverse course.

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