Finish Is Pleasantly Perfect

Pleasantly Perfect didn’t run the second race of his career until he was a 4-year-old. Now, as a 6-year-old, trainer Richard Mandella’s strapping horse is playing catch-up with abandon.

Winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic three months ago, Pleasantly Perfect returned Saturday to the Santa Anita track where he trains and uncorked a powerful four-length victory in the $250,000 San Antonio Handicap. Congaree, the 2-5 favorite in the four-horse field, finished last, defeated by more than eight lengths. It was the first time in 24 starts he had brought up the rear.

This was a rematch of last year’s San Antonio, which was won by Congaree as Pleasantly Perfect finished third. Although Congaree was carrying 124 pounds, three more than Pleasantly Perfect, on Saturday, Mandella did not have the best of vibes entering the 1 1/8-mile race.

“I thought we were very vulnerable,” he said after it was over. “All I could see was Congaree five lengths in front, with his neck bowed.”

Such a scenario existed only in the dark corners of Mandella’s mind. Pleasantly Perfect seemed to know that he wouldn’t have the extra real estate to overtake the leaders, as he did in the longer Breeders’ Cup race. He and jockey Alex Solis, never more than two lengths from the front, pounced on the other three from the outside, moved to the front approaching the quarter pole and sailed to the wire. Star Cross finished second and Fleetstreet Dancer ran third.

Timed in 1:47 1/5, the fastest running of the San Antonio since 1992, Pleasantly Perfect paid $5.80 as the second choice and earned $150,000 to send his purses over the $3-million mark. Mandella said that the future will present either the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap on March 6, or the $6-million Dubai World Cup on March 27, or both.

“Running in both races would be tough,” Mandella said, “but we’ve got a very fresh and a very healthy horse. We’ll discuss the options and let the horse lead us.”

Pleasantly Perfect, a son of Pleasant Colony, the 1980 Kentucky Derby winner, wasn’t always a robust horse. After Gerald Ford, the Dallas banker who has been on the Forbes 400 list, bought Pleasantly Perfect for $725,000 as a yearling in 1999, the horse was found to have a virus that surrounded his heart. After a last-place washout against maidens at Hollywood Park in May 2001, Mandella wasn’t able to bring him back to the races until January 2002. Since then, Pleasantly Perfect has seven victories, two seconds and one third in 13 races.

“He’s a different horse,” Mandella said. “He’s smarter and stronger. When he put himself into this race, that made the difference. Since he got healthy, he’s improved every step of his career.”

Congaree, ridden by Jerry Bailey, battled Star Cross and Fleetstreet Dancer for the lead for six furlongs, then dropped out of contention.

“I never had any horse under me,” Bailey said.

Bailey, who received his seventh Eclipse Award for riding last Monday, commutes for big races between his base at Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita. This winter, in California, he has been struggling. After Saturday, he showed only one victory in 17 mounts, and he has been beaten on seven favorites the last three days he has ridden at Santa Anita.

Mandella, who won three other Breeders’ Cup races on the same day Pleasantly Perfect won the Classic, racked up his sixth San Antonio win, tying Charlie Whittingham’s record. Solis, who won the 2002 San Antonio with the Mandella-trained Redattore, rode the winner of the stake for the fourth time.

“I just let [Pleasantly Perfect] come out of the gate on his own to see how the race would unfold,” Solis said. “On the backside, I got him out in the clear, but I always had my eyes on Congaree. Congaree is a good horse, and you can never under-estimate him. If you give him a chance, he’ll come back and beat you, but not today.”

*

The Magna pick five, linked to tracks owned by Frank Stronach, was won by bettors holding 28 tickets worth $13,928.40 apiece. The pool of $460,400 was short of the guaranteed $500,000. Race winners were City Fire in the Nellie Morse Stakes at Laurel; Hidden Ransom at Gulfstream Park, Red Rioja in the Brown Bess Handicap at Golden Gate Fields, Major Leaguer at Gulfstream and Leroidesanimaux at Santa Anita.... In New Orleans, Mystery Giver won the Fair Grounds Handicap for the third year in a row.... Mike Luzzi rode four winners at Aqueduct, one of them She’s Zealous in the $75,000 Correction Handicap.... At Gulfstream, Newfoundland won the $100,000 Canadian Turf Handicap and Wishful Splendor won the $100,000 Suwannee River Handicap. Trainer Todd Pletcher, who’s winning at a 30% clip at the meet, saddled Newfoundland, who won on a sloppy main track when his race was taken off the grass.... City Fire was the 28th January winner at Laurel for the owner-trainer team of Mike Gill and Mark Shuman.