Likely favorite Report yields experience

ARCADIA, Calif. – It takes only about a minute and 43 seconds to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, but the positive aftereffect lasts decades for trainer Richard Mandella.

Thirty years after Mandella’s first of nine Breeders’ Cup wins, the 1993 Juvenile Fillies with Phone Chatter, the trainer starts an exciting 3-year-old filly Friday at Santa Anita whose pedigree traces directly to Mandella’s first Breeders’ Cup winner.

Report, sharp debut winner, was produced by stakes winner Rumor, who was produced by unraced Mini Chat, who was produced by the 1993 champion filly. Phone Chatter is the third dam of Report, and the career of the latest family member is off to a promising start.

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“She met our expectations, for sure,” Mandella said, referring to Report’s emphatic debut victory. “She trained really well, and we were anxious to run her.”

Report was favored Oct. 7, shot to the lead from the inside post, set a fast pace, and won the sprint by 2 1/4 lengths. She earned a generic 76 Beyer Speed Figure and may need to improve Friday when she faces entry-level allowance fillies in the eighth race.

Hector Berrios rides Report again, this time from the outside post at six furlongs. Her main rival is fast-working Jensco, third two months ago in a similar allowance. Others are Daddysruby and seven-time winner Kristi’s Tiger, in for the $50,000 optional claiming tag. Sweet Mother Mary, R Swirvin Girvin, and Good as Gone also entered.

Report, sired by Empire Maker and produced by a four-time stakes winner, has big shoes to fill. Based on physical size, she is already there compared to her dam.

“Rumor was a small mare who didn’t carry much weight,” Mandella said. Report “is a little bit bigger and stronger, so we’re hoping to get more.”

Rumor won six races and $418,391 from 17 starts, including a Grade 3, and finished fifth in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. As a broodmare, Rumor has produced five runners; the best so far being Hazit, a 1-for-8 War Front colt who finished eighth in the 2017 BC Juvenile.

Anything short of an allowance victory by Report will disappoint bettors who consider her the most probable winner on the Friday card. A similar situation may occur at Santa Anita one week from Friday.

Mandella will start another heavily favored runner Nov. 3 on the Breeders’ Cup program. Tamara, who dominated the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante, is the early favorite for the BC Juvenile Fillies.

Tamara also has a pedigree steeped in Mandella Breeders’ Cup history. Tamara was produced by Mandella’s three-time Breeders’ Cup winner, Beholder.

◗ The $3 all-turf pick three Friday (races 5, 7, 9) includes divisions of a California-bred allowance hillside turf sprint. The opening leg is race 5 with route-to-sprint Discretionary Day; the split is race 9 with Grazed. The middle leg of the pick three is race 7, a maiden turf sprint on the main oval with Six Magpies possibly the one to beat.

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