Dixie Union Is on Track Even if Spectators Aren’t

From the start, Dixie Union has been a horse of good breeding, unquestioned ability and a willingness to work. It’s just that every time he has been ready to move to the next level, a boulder rolls down his path.

Maybe the third stage in Dixie Union’s career will be the keeper.

Trainer Richard Mandella’s 3-year-old colt helped Santa Anita open its 64th season Tuesday with a one-length win in the $200,000 Malibu Stakes, a victory that stands as an early warning to the leaders in the older-horse division in 2001.

With Frank Stronach on hand in 73-degree weather, Santa Anita drew a crowd of 29,912, the smallest opening-day turnout since 1970. Jack Liebau, Santa Anita’s new president, said that Tuesday openers are traditionally soft. The last Tuesday opener, in 1995, brought 30,898, but as recently as 1989 a Tuesday start drew 50,605.

Stronach, who bought the track two years ago for $126 million, said that his plans to develop Santa Anita into a full entertainment center have been locally stalled. He hopes to move the ambitious make-over along by meeting with two of Arcadia’s city council members next week, and he also mentioned the possibility of twilight racing on weekdays.

“It’s crazy to be running when most people must work,” Stronach said. “We can’t neglect live racing. We need the facilities that will make young people want to come. Without good on-track crowds, it would be like playing football in an empty stadium.”

On the track, though, it was business as usual and in alluding to Dixie Union’s immediate future, Mandella mentioned most of the richest early opportunities on the calendar.

“There’s the Strub series, the [$1-million] Santa Anita Handicap and the [$6-million] Dubai World Cup,” Mandella said. “There are a lot of meals on the table.”

The Malibu kicked off the Strub series, which will be completed with the $250,000 San Fernando Breeders’ Cup Stakes on Jan. 13 and the $500,000 Strub on Feb. 3. Of the five rivals Dixie Union faced in the Malibu, only two--Caller One and David Copperfield--had won graded stakes. David Copperfield, who beat only one horse, is a colt of unfulfilled promise, but in Caller One, who led the Malibu at the eighth pole, Dixie Union beat one of the fastest horses in the United States.

Caller One, the 6-5 favorite, was half a length better than Wooden Phone, who was making his stakes debut. Dixie Union, the second choice, ran seven furlongs in 1:21 3/5 and paid $5.20.

Dixie Union, ridden by Alex Solis, won for the seventh time in 12 starts, the $120,000 winner’s share lifting his total earnings to $1.2 million. That’s a pile of money for a colt that missed the first four months of 2000--and the Triple Crown series--because of a knee chip, and then was sidelined again in August because of a hoof injury.

When Dixie Union was injured in the Travers, four months ago, the fortunes of the Mandella barn were also going south.

“We had a tough meet at Del Mar, and another tough one at Oak Tree,” the trainer said. “There was good reason for everybody to forget about us as well as the horse.”

Before the Malibu, Mandella told Solis, who has ridden Dixie Union in all but one of his races, to ride Dixie Union with same confidence that the trainer himself had in the colt.

“I told him not to worry about Caller One,” Mandella said. “I knew that if he let our horse settle, we’d be all right. My horse likes to run at other horses.”

Explicit, at 15-1, kept Caller One company for half a mile, in fractions of :22 1/5 and :44 2/5.

“I thought the race set up for us all right,” said Jim Chapman, Caller One’s trainer. “The other horse was the best horse today. This was a track that was favoring horses that come from behind.”

Dixie Union was third, but only about a length behind, after half a mile.

“He stumbled a little bit out of the gate,” Solis said. “But after that, he [recovered] really fast and I was in great position all the way around. From the five-eighths pole on, I just had to be patient. I was very fortunate to get the pace that I did.”

Notes

Kent Desormeaux, who rode Caller One, is approaching 4,000 victories and two on Tuesday left him at 3,990. . . . An attorney for a third man linked to an extortion scheme involving jockey Gary Stevens has told Inglewood police that his client will turn himself in today. The man is believed to be related to Adam and Mark Frankel, San Fernando Valley residents who were arrested last Thursday night. The Frankels, who are expected to be charged with extortion and conspiracy, were released after each posted $35,000 bond, Inglewood police said. Their arraignment is scheduled Jan. 24. Stevens contacted police after he received a threatening note in the Hollywood Park jockeys’ room Dec. 17.