Winner Rock Hard Ten Puts On His Rally ‘Cap

Saint Liam had come from Florida with the reputation, a supposed training advantage and much of the crowd’s money behind him.

“There were a lot of naysayers,” Ernie Moody was saying about his horse, Rock Hard Ten. “That he was a one-turn horse, that he couldn’t get a mile and a quarter.”

If Rock Hard Ten was underestimated, so were his trainer and jockey, even though they’re old hands at getting a horse to the winner’s circle in the Santa Anita Handicap. Late Saturday afternoon, trainer Richard Mandella and jockey Gary Stevens were hugging each other in front of 35,484, after Stevens rode Rock Hard Ten to a 1 3/4 -length win. Second in the $1-million race was another Mandella horse, Congrats. His 1-2 finish didn’t match his 1-2-3 showing in 1997, with Siphon, Sandpit and Gentlemen, but it will do.

“I’m learning to appreciate these things,” said Mandella, who won his third Big ‘Cap. The other one came with Malek in 1998.

Stevens won his fourth Big ‘Cap a day before his 42nd birthday. His other wins came with Ruhlmann and Farma Way in 1990 and ‘91, and Urgent Request in 1995.

“This horse just glides along,” Stevens said of Rock Hard Ten, who paid $9.60 as the second choice after hitting the wire in 2:01 1/5 . “Then his acceleration is incredible.”

Saint Liam, the Donn Handicap winner at Gulfstream Park, finished sixth as the 11-10 favorite in a field of 11. When Rock Hard Ten, who was fifth after three-quarters of a mile, ranged up alongside Saint Liam, in second place on the bend for home, Stevens was just riding his horse. Edgar Prado, Saint Liam’s jockey, was whipping frantically. Saint Liam retreated as Rock Hard Ten went into another gear.

Congrats, ridden by Tyler Baze, finished one length ahead of Borrego, who beat Grand Reward by a head for third place. Grand Reward, at 54-1, was the leader until Rock Hard Ten took over.

“I’m pretty lucky to have two horses in the barn like these,” Mandella said.

Since the Moodys -- Ernie and his wife, Maria -- and their partner, Madeleine Paulson, moved Rock Hard Ten from Jason Orman to Mandella, the 4-year-old colt has run the table at Santa Anita, winning the seven-furlong Malibu, the 1 1/8 -mile Strub and now the Big ‘Cap.

“He hasn’t raced many times, and look what he’s accomplished,” Mandella said. “It takes a complete horse to win those races.”

The morning of the Big ‘Cap, however, Mandella and Moody still weren’t sure they were going to run. Another rain shower bombarded Santa Anita on Friday, adding to the 40 inches that had already fallen this winter.

“Do you think it’ll be safe tomorrow?” Moody asked Mandella late Friday.

“Let’s wait until Saturday,” Mandella said.

They had what Mandella referred to as “plan B,” an 8,800-mile trip to the $6-million Dubai World Cup on March 26.

“I would have had my doubts about that,” Mandella said. “This is a horse who has his quirks, and going into [Saturday] I didn’t have the feeling that he was the old pro who might be up to that trip.”

Moody, who had seen what the road demands of last year’s Triple Crown -- second in the Preakness, fifth in the Belmont Stakes -- had done to his horse, was also skeptical about Dubai.

“He came out of all that last year the worse for wear,” Moody said. “We weren’t about to run him through another wringer again.”

By Saturday, the sun had come out and Santa Anita’s track turned to fast. Saint Liam might have been able to train in sunny Florida all winter, as opposed to Rock Hard Ten dodging the raindrops at Santa Anita, but he bore the weight of a shipper trying to win the Big ‘Cap. It still hasn’t happened since Broad Brush came from Maryland in 1987.

“I can’t see anything that went wrong, but obviously he didn’t run his race,” said Richard Dutrow Jr., who trains Saint Liam.

Prado knew early that it wasn’t Saint Liam’s day.

“I was done on the backside,” the jockey said. “He was lugging in a little bit, and it wasn’t him. He didn’t handle the track very well. Something might have happened. I hope nothing happened. He’s normally a better horse than that. When you call on him, he responds right away.”

Five of Rock Hard Ten’s six wins have come with Stevens aboard.

“This was a nice early birthday present,” said Stevens, who played legendary jockey George Woolf in the Oscar-nominated movie “Seabiscuit.” “I’ve kind of re-devoted myself this year, just concentrating on riding. I had some other things on the plate before, and I think I was just trying to mix too many things. So I made a full-on commitment for this year, and I’m happy about it, especially riding a horse like this.”

Stevens had ridden in seven Big ‘Caps since Urgent Request, his best finishes a pair of thirds, one with Gentlemen for Mandella in 1997.

“I know I’m enjoying [the wins] more now,” Stevens said. “I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older or what, but it’s getting sweeter. I’m enjoying riding more than I have in a long, long time.”

Mandella said that Rock Hard Ten has earned a rest before another campaign, designed to get him to the Breeders’ Cup at Belmont Park in the fall, is mapped out.

“The sky’s the limit for him,” Stevens said. “Richard said it best in the winner’s circle, that he’s going to improve. You haven’t seen the best of him.”