Siphon May Be Forgotten, but He’s Certainly Not Gone

In a barn that has won more than $8 million in purses this year, it’s possible for a horse to lose a few races and then be forgotten.

But Richard Mandella, the leading money-winner among trainers, hasn’t forgotten Siphon.

“He just ran into Gentlemen a couple of times, that’s all,” Mandella said. “He a horse who’s as good as they come. He’s in good shape and I think he’ll run a big race Saturday.”

The race is the $1-million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park, one of more than a dozen stakes this weekend that will further shape the fields for the seven Breeders’ Cup races at Hollywood Park on Nov. 8. Besides Belmont, the action is focused at Santa Anita, Keeneland and Woodbine, and there’s even a race in England on Saturday--the Dubai Champion Stakes at Newmarket--that might send a couple of contenders to California for the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

Until recently, Siphon wasn’t a candidate for the $4-million Breeders’ Cup Classic, because it was going to cost his owner, South American breeder Linneo Eduardo de Paula Machado, a supplement of $800,000 to run.

But Siphon has been so consistent for so long under Mandella, and has run so well at Hollywood, that Machado has left the door open. Another incentive is the July change in the Breeders’ Cup’s supplementary rules. For the first time, most of the supplementary money will be added to the purses, and in Siphon’s case that would be $720,000 of the $800,000.

“If Siphon wins Saturday, we might put up the money,” Mandella said. “Part of the decision could be related to whether Gentlemen runs.”

Gentlemen and Siphon have accounted for almost half of the Mandella barn’s $8-million-plus this year. Gentlemen appears to be recovering from an ulcerated throat that jeopardized his Breeders’ Cup prospects. Gentlemen is also an $800,000 supplementary, and if both he and Siphon run in the Breeders’ Cup, the Classic’s purse will grow to $5.44 million, with the winner collecting more than $2.8 million.

This year, only two horses--stablemate Gentlemen and the European standout Singspiel--have blocked Siphon’s way to an unbeaten record. Siphon beat Gentlemen while winning the Santa Anita Handicap in March, but since then the 6-year-old Brazilian-bred has run three consecutive seconds--against Singspiel in the Dubai World Cup, and against Gentlemen in the Hollywood Gold Cup and the Pacific Classic at Del Mar.

Since running his first race for Mandella in May 1995, Siphon has posted eight wins, six seconds, two thirds and one fourth in 18 starts. The other race was a sixth-place finish at Del Mar in 1995. Siphon hasn’t finished worse than third in his last 11 races.

Siphon, who will be ridden by Chris McCarron, is the 7-5 second choice on the morning line for the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

At even money in the seven-horse field is Skip Away, who beat Cigar in the race a year ago, but has lost seven of nine since. Skip Away’s trainer, Sonny Hine, is replacing Shane Sellers with Jerry Bailey, the leading jockey nationally, in an attempt to get his colt back on track.

Skip Away is also ineligible for the Breeders’ Cup--his supplementary fee would be $480,000--and Hine and his wife Carolyn, who owns the horse, aren’t expected to run. They bypassed the Classic last year.

As Gentlemen’s training curve shoots upward, his odds are going the opposite way in the Breeders’ Cup future books in Las Vegas. Oddsmaker Roxy Roxborough revised his numbers to make Gentlemen the new favorite, at 5-2, for the Classic. Formal Gold, who had been favored, is now 3-1, followed by Touch Gold at 7-2, and after that it’s 10-1 and upward.

Hollywood Park chairman R.D. Hubbard and his partners must pay about $266,000 of Gentlemen’s $800,000 supplementary by Oct. 27. Should the horse not run because of medical reasons, that payment is nonrefundable.

The other five entrants in the Jockey Club Gold Cup--Coup D’Argent, Golden Larch, Prepo, Instant Friendship and Wagon Limit--are not considered Breeders’ Cup threats.

Gary Stevens, second to Bailey on the national money list, will be able to ride Coup D’Argent and a wide array of other weekend stakes horses after receiving a temporary court order that throws a five-day suspension from the Santa Anita stewards into limbo. The suspension, imposed after Marlin and Stevens were disqualified and dropped from second to fourth place in last Sunday’s Oak Tree Turf Championship, was supposed to start Saturday.

Other Stevens mounts this weekend include Grand Slam, the 7-5 favorite in the $400,000 Champagne at Belmont on Saturday, and Souvenir Copy, the Del Mar Futurity winner, who runs Sunday at Santa Anita in the $200,000 Norfolk. Both colts are warming up for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

Stevens and his agent, Ron Anderson, were surprised that the jockey should have been penalized. Marlin was injured in the race, probably on the first turn, and drifted in through the stretch while favoring his right foreleg. Transported off the track, Marlin suffered suspensory damage and has been retired.

“This is typical of the way it’s been going at the meet,” Anderson said. “I think the stewards have lost it. It’s like they don’t know what they’re doing. Forget about my rider, I’m talking about other riders that have gotten days. It doesn’t make any sense.

“You would have thought that the condition of the horse [Marlin] would have been a factor. A lot of people thought that the horse’s number shouldn’t have come down.

“It’s as though the stewards are justifying a possible mistake by giving Gary days. His stick never came out of his left hand all the way through the stretch. We’ve been together six years, and this is the first time we’ve fought a suspension. That’s how wrong we think it is.”

Horse Racing Notes

Roxy Roxborough’s other favorites for the Breeders’ Cup: Turf--Singspiel, 2-1; Mile--Spinning World, 5-2; Distaff--Twice The Vice, 7-2; Sprint--Richter Scale, 5-2; Juvenile--Favorite Trick, 5-2; Juvenile Fillies--Countess Diana, 9-5. . . . At Santa Anita, Saturday’s $200,000 Oak Leaf for 2-year-old fillies drew nine horses, among them Vivid Angel, winner of the Del Mar Debutante. . . . The $250,000 Oak Tree Breeders’ Cup Mile Handicap will have eight horses, with high weight of 123 pounds going to Taiki Blizzard, the horse from Japan.