Best Pal Is Likely to Be Retired

It appears that Best Pal, the richest California-bred in history, has run his final race. The announcement of the 8-year-old’s retirement is expected later this week.

A fixture on the racing scene since he won his debut on May 18, 1990, for owners John and Betty Mabee, Best Pal ran his 47th and last race in the San Pasqual Handicap on Jan. 15. The gelded son of Habitony and the mare Ubetshedid never threatened in the race won by Alphabet Soup, finishing eighth in a nine-horse field.

John Mabee would neither confirm or deny that Best Pal was finished racing.

“Not officially,” he said when asked Monday if the gelding had been retired. “My wife and I really haven’t had a final conversation with [trainer Richard] Mandella. We’ll make a decision in the next couple of days.”

Apparently, however, the decision already has been made, and Best Pal, who is “racing sound” according to Mabee, won’t continue, primarily because age has caught up with him. He will be retired to the Mabees’ Golden Eagle Farm in Ramona.

Best Pal, with earnings of $5,668,245, is the third-richest thoroughbred in history, behind Alysheba, who won $6,679,242, and John Henry, who won $6,597,947. Best Pal won only one of his last six starts, the Skywalker last Oct. 18 at Santa Anita, and had not won a Grade I race since the 1993 Hollywood Gold Cup. He did come close to another last year, losing by a head to Urgent Request in the Santa Anita Handicap.

Best Pal and Alysheba are the only two horses ever to have won three $1-million races. Best Pal won the 1990 Hollywood Futurity, the inaugural Pacific Classic in 1991 and the 1992 Santa Anita Handicap. He also finished second to Strike The Gold in the 1991 Kentucky Derby and second to Dinard in the Santa Anita Derby earlier that year.

He finishes with 18 victories, six of them Grade 1 stakes, 11 seconds and four thirds, had three trainers, Ian Jory, Gary Jones and Mandella, and was ridden by seven jockeys, Pat Valenzuela, the late Ron Hansen, Jose Santos, Gary Stevens, Kent Desormeaux, Corey Black and Chris McCarron.