Nakatani Is Once Again Preferred for Gentlemen

Fourteen races and 22 months ago, Corey Nakatani was Gentlemen’s regular rider. He’s being reunited with the Argentine-bred for today’s $1-million Pacific Classic at Del Mar.

In the interim, Gentlemen, ridden in all but one of his races by Gary Stevens, has won seven of 11 starts and earned about $2.6 million. That’s more than $250,000 out of Nakatani’s pocket--jockeys typically get 10% of the horse’s purse--but Nakatani will bank $60,000 today if Gentlemen wins the Pacific Classic again and earns the $600,000 winner’s payout.

Gentlemen and his stablemate, Puerto Madero, are the 6-5 favorites on the morning line. Touch Gold is next at 8-5, followed by Free House at 3-1. The odds jump to 12-1 and higher for the rest of the nine-horse field.

Nakatani, 27, hasn’t ridden Gentlemen since Sept. 28, 1996, when they won the Bay Meadows Handicap. That was only the third start for Gentlemen in the U.S.--all under Nakatani--but jockeys’ agents at Hollywood Park rolled their eyes when Nakatani traveled to Japan for an all-star jockey promotion instead of riding the horse in the Citation Handicap a month after the Bay Meadows race. Already, Gentlemen was perceived as a rising star.

“When I made the commitment to go to Japan, Gentlemen wasn’t a definite [for the Citation],” Nakatani said. “Then when they decided to run him, I didn’t want to back out on Japan. It was the right thing to do then, and I still think it was the right thing.”

So Stevens rode Gentlemen to victory in the Citation. He retained the mount three weeks later, when trainer Richard Mandella put the horse back on dirt broke the Hollywood Park track record for 1 1/8 miles by winning the Native Diver Handicap in 1:45 1/5.

With Stevens, Gentlemen continued to roll, winning five stakes, among them last year’s Hollywood Gold Cup and Pacific Classic.

Conflicts as Silver Charm’s regular rider have kept Stevens from being nominated as Gentlemen’s rider for the Santa Anita Handicap and Hollywood Gold Cup this year. After the Gold Cup, R.D. Hubbard, the principal owner of Gentlemen, and Mandella huddled.

“We decided to give Corey the call,” Mandella said. “There were no hard feelings [with Stevens] over this. But it just wasn’t fair to the horse that he should be sitting behind Gary and Silver Charm. A horse of this caliber deserves better than that.”

Horse Racing Notes

Nearly halfway through the Del Mar meeting, trainer Bob Baffert isn’t having nearly as much success with his 2-year-olds as he did in 1997. After winning 13 races with his babies here last year, he has only two 2-year-old victories so far this season, but he has made them count. Six days after Silverbulletday won the Sorrento Stakes, Worldly Manner won the $109,300 Best Pal Stakes on Friday, paying $2.60 as the 1-5 favorite, coupled with fourth-running Admire The Flag, and traveling 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:16 2/5 under Gary Stevens. . . . Passion Flower, the longest shot in the field of six at nearly 11-1, rallied from far back to win the $73,650 Vielle Vigne Handicap, running the 1 1/16 miles in 1:44 2/5 with Eddie Delahoussaye aboard.

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Times sportswriter Bob Mieszerski contributed to this story.