Santa Anita Opener a Rough Ride for Trainer

With Pleasantly Perfect, trainer Richard Mandella won the $6-million Dubai World Cup in March and the $1-million Pacific Classic at Del Mar in August, but the gaps in between amount to a disappointing year.

Mandella won a record four Breeders’ Cup races in October 2003, then finished fourth nationally in purses. “I had great expectations going into 2004,” he said. “A little of it worked out. A lot of it didn’t.”

Early on opening day Sunday at Santa Anita, Mandella kept seeing reminders of unfulfilled promises. Action This Day, one of his Breeders’ Cup winners, went to turf trying to end a losing streak. But the colt finished far back, his fifth straight loss since the Breeders’ Cup. In the next race, Mandella’s Never At Dusk, a 2-year-old making his second start, lost his rider leaving the gate.

Mandella persevered. He started two horses in the $250,000 Malibu Stakes -- a third horse, Spellbinder, was scratched -- and Rock Hard Ten, ridden by Gary Stevens, split horses in the stretch for a half-length win before a crowd of 31,874.

Mandella’s fourth Malibu win was furnished by a 3-year-old colt who recently joined his barn. Mandella said that in November, one of Rock Hard Ten’s owners, Ernie Moody, called to ask if he would take the horse. Previously, Rock Hard Ten was trained by Jason Orman.

“He was in very good shape when I got him,” Mandella said. “Because of the [seven-furlong] distance, I would not have been surprised if he had made his run and just missed getting there. Because he has a need to go farther, I was prepared for that. What a great ride that was. If you jazzed him up, this horse could become a good sprinter. But getting him ready for a mile and a quarter would be better.”

Horses trained by Doug O’Neill -- Lava Man, Harvard Avenue and Perfect Moon -- finished 2-3-4. Rock Hard Ten and Harvard Avenue both squeezed between Lava Man and Perfect Moon in the final strides. Mass Media, the 6-5 favorite, finished fifth. Rock Hard Ten, the second choice, paid $6.80 after hitting the wire in 1:21 4/5.

Like Mandella, Stevens was looking to jump-start 2005. Stevens spent five months riding in France, where he didn’t win as many races as he would have liked, and returned to California in September. He had won only 54 races in the United States before Sunday.

Rock Hard Ten was last after the opening quarter-mile, about eight lengths from the lead. “It took him 100 yards to get his feet out from under him,” Stevens said. “After that, it seemed like every decision I made was the right one. I got all the right breaks at the right time. When you’re riding good horses, those breaks seem to come your way. At the eighth pole, he was taking a bead on the daylight up ahead.”

This was Rock Hard Ten’s fourth win in eight starts, all this year. Stevens won with him the first two times he ran, at Santa Anita last winter. The Malibu was the first time Rock Hard Ten had run at Santa Anita since Castledale beat him by a head at the Santa Anita Derby in April. Ridden by David Flores that day, Rock Hard Ten was disqualified from second to third for interference, and the $60,000 difference in purse money prevented the colt from running in the over-subscribed Kentucky Derby.

He finished second -- with Stevens aboard again -- in the Preakness, but was 11 1/2 lengths behind Smarty Jones. After a fifth-place finish in the Belmont, Rock Hard Ten won the Swaps at Hollywood Park. His last start before Sunday resulted in a sixth-place finish in the Haskell Handicap at Monmouth Park on Aug. 8. He races in silks with four aces on the back. That’s what he was in the Malibu, all aces.

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Trainer Doug O’Neill did better in the $112,700 Sir Beaufort, the race before the Malibu. He saddled Whilly for a 3/4 -length win. Uncle Denny won the $138,625 California Breeders’ Champion Stakes by the same margin. The 2-year-old colt, with the help of a disqualification, is undefeated in three starts.

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Corey Nakatani, who ranks seventh nationally with purses of $12.4 million, is sitting out a 30-day suspension that stems from a disqualification in a race at Santa Anita in March. Nakatani’s appeals were denied. His suspension runs through Feb. 3, but he can ride in stakes covered by California’s designated-race rule.

One of Nakatani’s prized mounts, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Sweet Catomine, will be ridden by David Flores in the Santa Ysabel Stakes on Jan. 9. Nakatani won the Swaps with Rock Hard Ten.

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Trainer Wayne Lukas had been 0 for 68 at Santa Anita this year before Going Wild’s win in the sixth race. Lukas failed to win with 67 starters at the Santa Anita meet last winter, and missed with his only starter during the Oak Tree meet in the fall.

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Another horse in the sixth, Anxiously Awaiting, collapsed near the finish line and died, possibly from a heart attack. Tyler Baze, who rode Anxiously Awaiting, was injured and unable to ride in the last three races. Baze complained that he might have pulled something in his stomach.

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Kyle Kaenel, 16, won the third race with All The Boys for his first win at Santa Anita. Kaenel is the son of Jack Kaenel, who was 16 when he won the 1982 Preakness with Aloma’s Ruler.

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Scrofa, trainer Paul Aguirre’s shipper from Hollywood Park, won the $100,000 Work the Crowd Handicap at Golden Gate Fields.

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Lost In The Fog set a track record for 6 1/2 furlongs, winning the $50,000 Arizona Juvenile in 1:13 2/5. The margin was 14 3/4 lengths.

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Mongoose Jet Eye, running a world-record 19.018 seconds for 400 yards, won the $400,000 Championship for quarter horses at Sunland Park. The old record, 19.07, was set by Kendall Jackson at the New Mexico track last year. Push The Pace was second, favored SLM Snowman finished third, and Cash For Kas, winner of the Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos, ran fourth.