Tag: richard mandella

Kentucky Downs Takes Entries, Draws Post Positions For Sept. 11 Graded Stakes Card

The fields are set for the summer's biggest day of turf racing, as entries were taken and post positions drawn Saturday for the FanDuel Meet at Kentucky Downs' blockbuster Sept. 11 card featuring five graded stakes at the Franklin, Ky., track.

The Super Saturday is the marquee attraction among six huge days of racing Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sept. 11 and 12. First post is 12:20 p.m. Central. All the races will be shown on TVG.

Purses for next Saturday's 11 races total $4,692,000, of which $2.2 million comes from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund for registered Kentucky-bred horses. That's the vast majority of the horses running, but even the base purse that everyone competes for reflects some of the richest pots in the country.

“The card is amazing,” said Kentucky Downs Vice President for Racing Ted Nicholson. “Hats off to our racing office.”

The headliners are the $1 million Grade 2 Calumet Turf Cup at 1 1/2 miles and the $1 million Grade 3 FanDuel Turf Sprint at six furlongs. Both are “Win and You're In” stops on the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series and will be televised live by NBC. The Turf Cup winner will get a fees-paid berth in the $4 million Longines Breeders' Cup Turf and the FanDuel winner the same in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif., on Nov. 6.

Donegal Racing's Arklow, the 2020 and 2018 Calumet Turf Cup winner, renews his rivalry with Michael Hui's 2019 victor Zulu Alpha, who was sidelined after last year's stakes and is 0 for 2 this year. Arklow would be the first three-time winner of the race. But they'll have to beat another Grade 1 winner in Channel Cat, returning to Kentucky Downs for the first time since he captured the 2018 Dueling Grounds Derby. He's owned by stakes sponsor Calumet Farm.

Arklow won Churchill Downs' Louisville Stakes and most recently was seventh in the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap, but beaten only 1 3/4 lengths for everything.

Mike Maker, a five-time meet-leader and Kentucky Downs' record-holder in career wins, has five of the 12 horses in the body of the Calumet Turf Cup, headed by Zulu Alpha. The others are Tide of the Sea, a Kentucky Downs winner last year and Gulfstream's Grade 3 McKnight this year; Ellis Park's Kentucky Downs TVG Preview winner Bluegrass Parkway; Grade 2 Belmont Gold Cup third-place finisher Ajourneytofreedom, and Glynn County, third in Arlington Park's Grade 1 Mr. D, the race formerly known as the Arlington Million. A sixth Maker entrant, Dynadrive, needs three scratches to get in the field.

Also in the field: Breakpoint, a triple Grade 1 winner in his native Chile, goes for his first U.S. win in three starts; Irish Group 3 winner Crossfirehurricane; Grade 1 United Nations runner-up Imperador and United Nations third Epic Bromance. Big Dreaming, second in last year's Dueling Grounds Derby, needs a defection to get in.

The FanDuel Turf Sprint brings back last year's top three finishers in Imprimis and the dead-heat runners-up Bombard and Front Run the Fed, who finished a neck behind the winner. But the favorite is likely to be boys-beater Got Stormy, winner of last year's Kentucky Downs Ladies Sprint over very soft turf in her first attempt at sprinting. Got Stormy is the only filly or mare to win Saratoga's Grade 1 Fourstardave, having done so in her last start and in 2019 after taking second last year. She has been second in three other Grade 1 starts against males, including in the 2019 Breeders' Cup Mile.

“We've never backed down from a challenge,” says Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse, who acknowledges his desire to pad Got Stormy's own Hall of Fame credentials.

Other challengers: Casa Creed, winner of Belmont's Grade 1 Jackpocket Jaipur at the six-furlong distance; multiple graded stakes-winner Diamond Oops; the blossoming Fast Boat, a past winner over the course who last out won Saratoga's Grade 3 Troy Stakes, and Born Great, who last year won a Kentucky Downs maiden and allowance race in the span of a week.

The Richard Baltas-trained Venetian Harbor ships in from California for the $600,000 The Mint Ladies Sprint. The 4-year-old filly has been worse than second only once in 10 starts. In two turf races, she was second in her debut and won Santa Anita's Grade 2 Monrovia.

Also in from the West Coast is the multiple stakes winner and graded stakes-placed Superstition for Hall of Famer Richard Mandella. John Sadler sends out Santa Anita stakes-winner Constantia in the overflow field of 14.

The beer will be flowing in Henderson if Yes It's Ginger prevails. There were so many people connected to Henderson beer distributor Mike “Hotdog” Utley, as well as the Brilliant Racing and Tagg Team Racing partnerships, that the winner's circle presentation had to move to the main track after “Ginger” prevailed in the Kentucky Downs TVG Preview Ladies Sprint, which gave her a free roll in this 6 1/2-furlong race.

The Casse-trained Jeanie B lost a Grade 2 stakes at Woodbine by a nose in her last start for owner CJ Thoroughbreds, whose managing partner Corey Johnsen was president and part-owner of Kentucky Downs before its sale to Ron Winchell and Marc Falcone.

Violenza enters the race off victory in a $100,000 turf sprint at Colonial Downs in her stakes debut for trainer Ian Wilkes and his son-in-law jockey Chris Landeros. The Maker-trained Jakarta has been off form but won a starter-allowance race here last year.

The $750,000 Kentucky Downs Ladies Mile is headlined by 5-for-6 Princess Grace, winner of three straight stakes capped by Del Mar's Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon. The Mike Stidham-trained Princess Grace shares the 126-pound high-weight with 2020 One Dreamer winner Dalika.

She'sonthewarpath, an eight-time winner out of 19 starts, is in peak form off of two stakes victories at Ellis Park. Florida trainer Saffie Joseph has the horse to catch in Shifty She, a two-time stakes-winner at Gulfstream and a good third in Saratoga's De La Rose won by 2020 Ladies Mile winner Regal Glory.

Summer in Saratoga, an allowance winner here last year for trainer Joe Sharp, won Indiana Grand's Indiana General Assembly Distaff in her last start.

With The Lir Jet, Qatar Racing will try to win the $600,000 Franklin-Simpson for the third straight year, and the first time with the stakes a Grade 2. Qatar Racing won last year's stakes with Guildsman, who like The Lir Jet is trained by Brendan Walsh, and in 2019 with the Doug O'Neill-trained Legends of War. The Lir Jet won Royal Ascot's Group 2 Norfolk as a 2-year-old but is winless since. He makes his debut both in the United States and as a gelding.

Sharing high weight status of 124 pounds with The Lir Jet is the Eddie Kenneally-trained Point Me By, winner of Arlington Park's Grade 1 Bruce D. Stakes (formerly the Secretariat).

The field of twelve 3-year-old stakes-winners, with three others on the also-eligible list, includes the filly Miss Amulet, a Group 2 winner in England and a close second in a Group 1. Other contenders in a talented field: Woodbine's Grade 3 Marine winner Easy Time; the Wesley Ward duo of Churchill Downs' War Chant winner Next and Ellis Park's Dade Park Dash victor Into the Sunrise, and American Derby winner Tango Tango Tango. Other stakes-winners are Bodenheimer, King of Miami, Omaha City, and County Final. Last year's Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint runner-up Fauci, also trained by Ward, needs a scratch to get in the field.

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Sadler Reveling In Third Pacific Classic Win

TVG Pacific Classic upset winner Tripoli ($15.00) was asleep in his stall at mid-morning. Trainer John Sadler was inclined to leave the 1 ¼-length winner over Tizamagician undisturbed, calling it a “good sign,” while reflecting on what was a third TVG Pacific Classic victory for Sadler and Hronis racing in the last four years.

“I'm in the latter part of my career and when you can win these big races, I feel very blessed,” Sadler said. “I'm not that old, I'm 65, but I've been around a long time and I don't feel like I'm in the middle part of my career, whether there's two, five or 10 years left to go.”

As a “Win and You're In” qualifier for the $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar on November 6, Tripoli is now assured a spot in the champion-making race Sadler and Hronis won in 2018 with Accelerate.

Campaign planning for Tripoli going forward will be put on hold at least temporarily.

“We'll see how Rock Your World runs next Sunday ($100,000 Shared Belief Stakes), they might be candidates for the same race,” Sadler said. “(Tripoli) could run once (before the Classic) or… whatever.”

For the stable of Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella, the momentum of victories by Forbidden Kingdom (4th race, $10.60) and Subconscious  (5th, $13.60) didn't carry over to the stakes. Tizamagician led for the first mile of the 1 ¼-mile Classic before yielding to Tripoli and his Royal Ship, the second wagering choice at just under 3-1, was a no-factor seventh.

“A pretty good day, you're never going to complain if you win two races on the day,” said Gary Mandella, deputizing for his father. “We had a really good second in the Classic with Tizamagician, but Royal Ship is a bit of a mystery. We don't know what went on with him except maybe the year has been a little bit tiring on him. We'll listen to him and figure him out. He'll tell us what to do.”

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Hall Of Famers Mandella, Smith A Powerful Combo For Royal Ship In Pacific Classic

Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella and Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith have a combined 27 “participations” in the $1 million TVG Pacific Classic.

They have four wins apiece and a combined 18 in-the-money finishes.

For Mandella, the record shows 17 starters, four wins, six seconds and a third. Dare And Go's phenomenal upset of Cigar in 1996 was the first victory for Mandella with Gentleman (1997), Pleasantly Perfect (2004) and Beholder (2015) following.

For Smith, it's 10 mounts, four wins, one second and two third-place finishes. The victories were guiding Came Home (2002), back-to-back with Richard's Kid in 2009-10 and Shared Belief in 2014.

It's all been separately. The two have never combined on a TVG Pacific Classic runner.

“It's about time,” was Mandella's immediate reaction.

“It's about time,” were Smith's first words when apprised of the fact a few days later.

The time will come Saturday in the 31st running of the signature event of Del Mar's summer meeting. Mandella will saddle and Smith will ride Fox Hill Farm and Siena Farm's Royal Ship, a Brazilian-bred 5-year-old son of 2008 Del Mar Futurity winner Midshipman, the 7-2 second choice behind 3-1 favorite Express Train on the morning line.

If Mandella and Smith haven't hooked up for the Classic before this, it's because they were orbiting at different, albeit exceptionally high, levels when selecting riders for mounts or mounts to ride.

Gary Stevens (Beholder and Gentleman), Jerry Bailey (Pleasantly Perfect) and Alex Solis (Dare And Go), Hall of Famers all, piloted Mandella's TVG Pacific Classic winners. Three of Smith's four Classic victories came for Hall of Fame trainers – Bob Baffert with Richard's Kid and Jerry Hollendorfer with Shared Belief.

And there was one notable near miss.

“I was riding Pleasantly Perfect, but I had already (committed to) Came Home,” Smith recalled. Pleasantly Perfect finished fourth to Came Home in 2002, skipped the Pacific Classic in 2003 but won the Breeders' Cup Classic and returned as a 6-year-old in 2004 to win the Dubai World Cup and the Pacific Classic.

“You don't know what would have happened if I'd have been able to stay with him,” Smith said. “But he won just about everything the next year and the year after that.”

That Mandella and Smith are together on Royal Ship is in a major part attributable to John Fulton, a former Southern California-based trainer who is now a bloodstock agent and equine talent scout in South America, and the late Rick Porter of Fox Hill Farms.

“John Fulton contacted Mr. Porter and sent him some films of the horse that he thought looked really good,” Mandella said. “Mr. Porter sent them to me and I agreed, so they bought him.”

Porter's recommendation that Smith get the call was based on years of success together. Smith provided Porter, who died from cancer on June 6, with his first Grade I win on Jostle in 2000. More recently, Smith rode the filly Songbird through a career of 13 victories in 15 starts, 12 of them stakes, Eclipse Awards in filly divisions as a 2-year-old in 2015 and 3-year-old in 2016. And, in one of the most memorable races of recent years a runner-up to Beholder by a nose in the 2016 Breeders' Cup Distaff at Santa Anita.

Royal Ship was on a five-race winning streak in his native Brazil, capped by a victory in the Group I Estado do Rio de Janeiro in February last year, when the call came to send him to America. There was quarantine upon arrival and four months acclimating under Mandella's care before his first U.S. start. It came on August 23, 2020 in the Del Mar Mile and resulted in a third-place finish, beaten 4 ¼ lengths by Mo Forza.

It took three more starts, all in Graded events, and the “ultimate equipment change” of being gelded before notching a victory in the Grade II Californian in April, a close second in the Grade I Hollywood Gold Cup in May and third, beaten 1 ¼-lengths by TVG Pacific Classic favorite Express Train in the San Diego Handicap on July 17.

“He has always trained like a really good horse,” Mandella said. “He's done well, but as he got older he got a little studdish, and that that's when we gelded him. He was having trouble in his races, but he was making his own trouble.”

Smith has been a co-contributor through the work-in-progress stage with Royal Ship

And now speaks with enthusiasm about the horse.

“When he first came over, he was not a very mature horse,” Smith said. “He would never stand straight in the gate, didn't break that well. All his races had been on turf and we thought of him as a turf horse at first.

“His first few races here were good, but he wasn't really giving his all. I knew there was more left in him. We wound up gelding him and it made a difference. He's been standing in the gate well, jumping really well and he hasn't run a bad race since.

“The horse is really coming around at the right time and he has really found a home and a place to excel at the mile-and-an-eighth to mile-and-a-quarter distance.”

With Smith in the irons, Royal Ship breezed a half-mile in :47.80 last Monday in his final TVG Pacific Classic tune-up

“He was in the bridle, wanting to do it and finished strong,” Smith said. “Hopefully he'll get a good run, do what I believe he can do and combine for a fifth win apiece.”

For the first-time TVG Pacific Classic combination of Smith and Mandella.

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With Breeders’ Cup Berth On Line, Express Train Installed 3-1 Favorite In $1 Million Pacific Classic

C R K Stable's Express Train, winner of the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap on July 17, drew Post 5 and was installed the 3-1 morning line favorite to beat eight rivals on Saturday in the 31st running of the Grade 1, $1 million TVG Pacific Classic at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif.

Post positions for the 1 1/4-mile headliner for 3-year-olds and up were drawn at The Brigantine restaurant overlooking the racetrack on Tuesday afternoon with the connections of the nine runners looking on. Del Mar's morning line maker, Jon White, tabbed Express Train as a slight favorite over Fox Hill Farms and Siena Farm's Royal Ship at 7-2.

All runners will carry 124 pounds under the conditions of the race, which is part of the Breeders' Cup “Win and You're In” Challenge series that awards the victorious horse automatic entry into this year's $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic with all pre-entry and entry fees paid. That race will be run at Del Mar this year on Saturday, Nov. 6.

Express Train, a 4-year-old Union Rags colt, has been solid and steady throughout his 12-race career with four wins, four seconds and two thirds on his ledger for a bankroll that currently reads $659,300. He's responded well to the patient handling of trainer John Shirreffs, as well as the horsemanship of his TVG Pacific Classic rider, Juan Hernandez, who has been aboard the bay in his last six outings.

Royal Ship, a Brazilian bred by Midshipman, has steadily improved his efforts in seven U.S. starts since shipping north from his native land last year. The 5-year-old gelding has won six of 14 starts and shows earnings of $293,305. His trainer is Hall of Famer Richard Mandella, who once again has selected Hall of Fame rider Mike Smith to be his pilot on Saturday.

Next on the betting line at 4-1 is the Eastern invader Dr Post, who races for St. Elias Stable and out of the barn of Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. The 4-year-old Quality Road colt, a winner of four of nine starts and $700,635, will be handled by Joel Rosario, a three-time Del Mar riding champion who now is based in the East.

The others in the lineup for the shore oval's premier summer offering are WinStar Farm, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Twin Creeks Racing Stables, et al's Independence Hall, My Racehorse and Spendthrift Farm's Tizamagician, Hronis Racing's Tripoli, Flawless Racing, Masino Racing Stable, et al's Cupid's Claws, Summer Wind Equine's Magic On Tap and Joe Peacock's Sheriff Brown.

The TVG Pacific Classic will be the highlight of an 11-race card that includes five graded stakes, among them the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks and the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap.

Here's the field for the TVG Pacific Classic in post position order with riders and morning line odds:

Post Position Horse/Jockey Morning Line Odds
1 TRIPOLI
Tiago J. Pereira		 5-1
2 TIZAMAGICIAN
Flavien Prat		 5-1
3 DR POST
Joel Rosario		 4-1
4 ROYAL SHIP (BRZ)
Mike E. Smith		 7-2
5 EXPRESS TRAIN
Juan J. Hernandez		 3-1
6 MAGIC ON TAP
Abel Cedillo		 20-1
7 INDEPENDENCE HALL
Florent Geroux		 5-1
8 SHERIFF BROWN
Edwin Maldonado		 30-1
9 CUPID'S CLAWS
Umberto Rispoli		 15-1

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