Gentlemen Starts His Engines, Then Demolishes Track Record

As Gentlemen sped around the oval at Hollywood Park on Sunday, the new minority partner of the 4-year-old colt watched in disbelief from the directors’ room.

“I thought Gary [Stevens] had moved too soon with him,” R.D. Hubbard said. “But then I realized that the horse was doing it on his own.”

Hubbard, the chairman of Hollywood Park, finally bought 40% of Gentlemen a couple of hours before the Native Diver Handicap, after months of negotiations, and while the price had doubled, the purchase couldn’t have been more timely. Winning the Native Diver by nine lengths, Gentlemen ran 1 1/8 furlongs in 1:45 1/5, breaking the track record by an astounding 1 2/5 seconds and missing the North American record by a fifth of a second.

“I’m speechless,” Stevens said after dismounting from the Argentine-bred. “[Trainer Richard Mandella] just made the comment that he could have rode him and set the record, and I think he could have. I didn’t do any more than push the button. He did it on his own. In the stretch, I took a peek at the big matrix board in the infield and saw that he was widening. So I eased him at the sixteenth pole, and he still shattered the record. Just a phenomenal performance.”

The Hollywood Park record for the distance had been 1:46 3/5, set by The Wicked North in the Californian in 1994. The North American record of 1:45 is held by Simply Majestic, set at Golden Gate Fields in 1988.

Gentlemen’s performance, which came on a drying-out track that was labeled wet-fast, was so powerful that track officials caught themselves applauding.

“This reminded me of the way Cigar won the [Hollywood] Gold Cup [in 1995],” steward Dave Samuel said.

After breaking awkwardly in the $106,400 race, Gentlemen took the lead shortly after the start and came close to running each quarter-mile fraction faster than the one before. The splits were :23 4/5, :23 3/5, :23 and :23 1/5. With no urging from Stevens, he completed the final eighth of a mile in :11 1/5.

Owned by Haras De La Pomme, a five-man syndicate that also bred him, Gentlemen won four of six starts in Argentina in 1995 before being sent to Mandella, who has developed other South American standouts such as Sandpit and Siphon. The first time he ran in the U.S.--and the only time he ran on dirt before Sunday--Gentlemen finished last, beaten by 10 1/2 lengths, in an allowance race at Hollywood on June 19. Mandella told Hubbard, one of his main clients, that he may have overdone Gentlemen’s preparation for the race, working him in company with the salty Afternoon Deelites.

“This is a horse that gives so much in the afternoons,” Mandella said Sunday. “That’s the reason I didn’t do too much with him before this race. All you need to do is fill the tank back up.”

After his inauspicious local debut, Gentlemen was put back on grass, where he reeled off three consecutive wins, including a strong outing in the Citation Handicap at Hollywood on Nov. 30.

But Mandella wanted to give him another shot at the dirt track. “There are a lot of million-dollar races around on dirt,” the trainer said. “In fact, there’s even some $4-million races.”

One minute before post time for the Native Diver, Gentlemen and Dramatic Gold were even in the win pool--$47,425 had been bet on each horse. Gentlemen, carrying 121 pounds, one less than Dramatic Gold, went off the 7-5 second choice and paid $4.80 to win, earning $63,840. Don’t Blame Rio finished third, two lengths behind Dramatic Gold and a head better than Alyrob in the five-horse field.

Mandella said that after the first quarter-mile, he didn’t watch the fractions. “All I know,” he said, “is that he broke slow and then he went faster and faster.”

Horse Racing Notes

Hollywood Park’s 36-day meet ended with daily averages of 8,836 in attendance and $1.8 million for handle, drops of 4.1% and 8.6%, respectively, from last season. Both averages were the lowest in the history of the fall meet, which was first run in 1981. Overall, this season’s handle was off 6.3% and attendance dropped 5.5%. Betting on the Hollywood races in Nevada was minimal because the track didn’t sign a simulcasting agreement with race books there. Alex Solis rode 40 winners, winning his fourth consecutive Southern California title. Mike Mitchell was the leading trainer with 11 wins. The stakes leaders were jockey Gary Stevens, with six wins, and trainer Wayne Lukas, with four.