Mandella Won't Get Three If It's 'Charm

By BOB MIESZERSKI

March 4, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Preparing for another assault on the Santa Anita Handicap, Richard Mandella wasn’t aware he has a chance to make history on Saturday.

After winning the $1-million event with Siphon in 1997 and Malek a year ago, Mandella can become the first trainer to win Santa Anita’s richest and most famous race three consecutive years.

Mandella will be well represented on Saturday.

Two years after an unprecedented 1-2-3 finish with Siphon, Sandpit and Gentlemen and a year removed from having half the field in the Big ‘Cap, Mandella will send out Event Of The Year and Puerto Madero. Malek was also being considered and it’s possible he will be entered this morning, but he is expected to wait for the $5-million Dubai World Cup on March 28.

Considering that Free House and Silver Charm will also be running Saturday, a third consecutive victory is hardly a given. “The way I look at it is nobody ever has to beat Silver Charm and Free House, and you’re lucky if you ever do,” Mandella said.

If it does happen, it will be a first, much to the surprise of Mandella.

“Charlie [Whittingham] hasn’t done it?” he said.

Whittingham has had 66 starters in the Santa Anita Handicap and won the race a record nine times, never more than two in a row.

Whittingham didn’t miss a third consecutive win by much. After winning with Lord At War in 1985 and Greinton in ‘86, Whittingham’s Ferdinand, who would become horse of the year, was beaten a nose by Broad Brush in the 1987 Big ‘Cap.

The only other trainers to have won the race in consecutive years are Tom Smith and Ron McAnally. Smith won with Kayak II in 1939 and Seabiscuit the next year, then was second with Mioland and 10th with Porter’s Cap in 1941.

McAnally won with John Henry in 1981 and 1982, the latter on a disqualification, but finished eighth with Water Bank and ninth with Major Sport in 1983.

Now, Mandella has a chance to take the next step. Event Of The Year and Puerto Madero have combined to win 16 of 23 and earned nearly $1.7 million.

“Winning it again will just be three times better than winning it once, and that was a pretty great feeling,” he said. “[The Santa Anita Handicap] is one of the races that, if you’re growing up in the game, especially in California, you dream about winning.”

Beaten in his first two races after returning from injury, Event Of The Year was impressive winning the Strub Stakes early and will try to become the first winner of that race since Best Pal in 1992 to win the Santa Anita Handicap in the same year.

Puerto Madero is a better horse this year than he was in 1998.

Fully acclimated to the United States after coming from Chile early in 1998, the 5-year-old son of Gallantsky rolled to victory in the Native Diver Handicap at Hollywood Park last Dec. 20.

Stepped into a Grade I in the $500,000 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Fla., on Jan. 30, Puerto Madero easily defeated 11 others, including heavily favored Silver Charm.

While some made excuses for Silver Charm--too much weight, a bad post position and a dislike for the Gulfstream Park main track--it might simply been a case that the better horse won.

Second to Skip Away in the Massachusetts Handicap and the Hollywood Gold Cup last year, Puerto Madero has gone to a new level this year for Mandella and owners Dwight Sutherland and R.D. Hubbard, Hollywood Park’s CEO.

“He’s improving by leaps and bounds, not little steps,” Mandella said. “When he first came here, he had a little problem in his head. I watched tapes of his races in Chile and he always came from off the pace, running like hell the last quarter of a mile.

“I didn’t know anything about him, so we worked him that way and let him do it. Then, when I ran him, he played a game in his mind and when he left the gate, he’d back up and see how far behind he could get.”

Now, Puerto Madero stays much closer to the pace. In the Native Diver, he was never more than three lengths off the lead and was only two lengths behind after six furlongs in the Donn.

Running in the Big ‘Cap marks a change in Puerto Madero’s plans. Originally, the Dubai World Cup was going to be his next start after the Donn.

“He came off the plane [from Florida] like he had never left,” said Mandella, who trained 1993 horse-of-the-year Kotashaan. “He was bucking and kicking and feeling so good. Plus, Mr. Hubbard is very involved with the NTRA [National Thoroughbred Racing Assn.], the horse won the first leg of the series [the NTRA Champions on Fox] and the race is here, so [Hubbard and Sutherland] just felt like they wanted to try it and then go to Dubai.

“At first I thought it might be too much to go Florida, come back and run in the Handicap and then go, and if I had a half-dozen races in [Puerto Madero] I would sure believe that, but he’s a fresh horse.”

Event Of The Year appears to be peaking for the Big ‘Cap. Mandella was enthusiastic about a work last week in which the son of Seattle Slew went six furlongs in 1:09 4/5, galloped out seven furlongs in “1:22 and change” and pulled up a mile in 1:36 4/5. “I think the Strub was a pretty strong race, and before he was injured last year, every race got better and the same thing has happened since he came back,” said Mandella.

If Malek’s plans were changed and he were to run Saturday, he would be going for his first win since last year’s Big ‘Cap, a race that will be remembered more for who didn’t run and who finished last.

In the weeks leading up to the race last year, the attention centered on the first meeting of Gentlemen and Silver Charm. Both were entered, but the day before the Handicap, Silver Charm was scratched because of a bruised foot, although he recovered in time to win the Dubai World Cup three weeks later.

Gentlemen, the 1-20 favorite against only three opponents, struggled home fourth, beaten by nearly eight lengths. An examination afterward revealed a bleeding lesion in his lungs and he didn’t race again until the Hollywood Gold Cup nearly four months later.

“It took a while for the win to kick in,” said Mandella, remembering how he felt, worrying more about Gentlemen’s condition than enjoying Malek’s victory. “I was very fortunate to have an owner like [Gentlemen’s Hubbard] who gave me a little space and was very understanding.”

* NO BABY, NO? Racing group has some success, but cynics wonder if members will reenlist after two years. C1

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In the Money

Trainers who have won multiple Santa Anita Handicaps:

9--Charlie Whittingham (1957, 1967, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1985, 1986, 1990, 1993)

3--Ron McAnally (1981, 1982, 1996)

2--Richard Mandella (1997, 1998)

2--William Molter (1956, 1958)

2--Charles S. Howard (1939, 1940)

2--D. Cameron (1949, 1952)

2--Gary Jones (1992, 1994)

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