Price for 2-Year-Old Out of This Worldly

There was no for-sale sign hanging over Worldly Manner’s head, but when his owners, John and Betty Mabee, were asked to price him and a mystery buyer in Kentucky met that price, the deal was made.

“An offer we couldn’t refuse,” Rick Taylor said Wednesday at Santa Anita. “Yeah, it sounds like it’s right out of ‘The Godfather.’ ”

Taylor is the racing manager for the Mabees’ Golden Eagle Farm, and when asked if Worldly Manner brought $5 million, he just smiled.

“It’s big,” he said, without confirming or denying the figure.

Not many horses in training--if any--have been sold for $5 million, but what the unnamed buyer is getting in Worldly Manner is a 2-year-old colt who’s the favorite for two of the sport’s biggest races--the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 7 and the Kentucky Derby next year. Worldly Manner has won three of four starts, his most recent race a five-length win in the Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 9.

“I can’t see him not winning the Juvenile,” said Bob Baffert, who has been training Worldly Manner for the Mabees. “Right now he’s so far ahead of the rest of them.”

The Mabees, who live in San Diego, were not on hand among the 14,641 at Santa Anita on Wednesday as their Advancing Star, the 4-5 favorite, lost by a head to Dance Parade in the $100,000 Autumn Days Handicap, the opening-day feature for the Oak Tree meeting. Advancing Star’s $20,000 second-place paycheck is a start toward the taxes on the sale of Worldly Manner.

Because the Mabees and Taylor have been dealing with a Kentucky bloodstock agent, David Lambert, they don’t know the identity of Worldly Manner’s new owner. The son of Riverman and Lady Pastor , a Flying Paster mare, will leave Baffert’s barn and be shipped to Churchill Downs this weekend. Baffert heard that the new trainer is Kiaran McLaughlin, which might indicate that the buyer is one of the Maktoum brothers, who live in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. McLaughlin has trained for the Maktoums since 1993.

The Mabees, who own more than 150 broodmares, race and sell their horses, but seldom part with a horse once he has established a reputation. They made the price high for Worldly Manner and were stunned when the potential buyer agreed without negotiating.

“One of the other things that made this deal possible is that we’ve got several very good 2-year-old colts,” Taylor said. “If they all pan out like we think they will, they’d be bumping into each other eventually.”

Daring General, second to Worldly Manner in the Del Mar Futurity, also races for the Mabees and Taylor said he should be the favorite in the Norfolk Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 11. Taylor is also very enthusiastic about three unraced colts--sons of Seeking The Gold, General Meeting and Avenue Of Flags--who are stabled at the San Luis Rey Downs training center near Bonsall.

Taylor said he had had inquiries about selling Worldly Manner even before his victory in the Del Mar Futurity.

“When you think about people paying $2 million for an unproven yearling,” Taylor said, “a high price for a colt such as this isn’t out of line. He’s already a proven commodity.”

The Mabees, who earned $5.6 million with the gelding Best Pal, went into this year’s Kentucky Derby with one of the favorites, but the undefeated Event Of The Year fractured his right knee the week before the race. Taylor said Wednesday that Event Of The Year, who has been shifted from Jerry Hollendorfer’s Northern California barn to Richard Mandella’s at Hollywood Park, probably will resume racing in December.

Horse Racing Notes

The weekend of Sept. 19, trainer Neil Drysdale won the Bay Meadows Handicap with Hawksley Hill and the Woodbine Mile with Labeeb. Both are headed for the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Nov. 7, with Hawksley Hill running in one more prep, the Oak Tree Mile on Oct. 18. Fiji, another sharp grass horse in Drysdale’s barn, will skip the Breeders’ Cup and run in the Yellow Ribbon at Santa Anita on Nov. 8. . . . The handle on opening day of the Oak Tree meet was $2,795,373.