Mitchell relishes upset win on the road with Sir Anthony

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Although Sir Anthony won Saturday’s Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday, it was the Pegasus World Cup-bound Audible who became the big story after finishing second as the 1-9 favorite in his 3-year-old finale. But that didn’t stop Sir Anthony’s trainer, Anthony Mitchell, and his crew from enjoying the moment in the aftermath of the improbable David and Goliath ending to the Grade 3 event.

“I felt awful good Saturday night and not so good the next morning,” a jubilant Mitchell quipped while waiting to board a flight back to Chicago on Monday. “When a horse runs a race that big, wins a race nobody really expected him to win, it’s a great feeling, and I’m really proud of him. To be honest, I thought I had a shot to be in the first three when we came down here, and then everything set up perfectly for him.

“Brian [Hernandez Jr.] got him to the rail, sat nice and chilly right behind the pace, took the shortest way around, and when it was time to push the button, he pushed it at just the right time. So a lot of the credit for all this goes to him, too.”

Mitchell may be unknown locally, but he has had himself a pretty good career since first taking out his trainer’s license nearly 20 years ago in Illinois.

“I started out working for Charlie Moore, jockey Ryan Moore’s grandfather, in England,” Mitchell said. “Ryan is actually my godson. I came to the U.S. for the first time in 1987 serving an apprenticeship with Tommy Skiffington. His assistant at the time was Rick Schosberg, and I eventually worked for him and then for Bill Badgett when he had all those good horses, including Go for Wand.”

Mitchell’s big break came seven years later when he met Bruce Duchossois, son of Arlington Park owner Dick Duchossois.

“Mr. Duchossois was looking for a farm trainer in Chicago at the time, so I took the job and wound up working for the family for 10 years before going out on my own in 2000,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell has had a number of graded stakes-caliber horses over the years, including Original Spin, who finished third in the 2005 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and second the following summer in the Grade 1 Test. Mitchell also trained Grade 3 winners Summer Mis and Lovely Afternoon.

Sir Anthony, a homebred son of Mineshaft owned by Richard Otto, will get a few weeks of downtime in Ocala before returning to action again here at some point during the winter. Although he defeated potential Pegasus contender Audible on Saturday, the rich and prestigious race is not on Sir Anthony’s radar.

“I talked it over with Mr. Otto, and we decided as nice as this horse is and as well as he’s been developing, he’s got a good 4-year-old campaign in front of him and a race like the Pegasus is a hill too high for him to climb at the moment,” Mitchell said.

Carryover tops $400K

There will be a Rainbow 6 carryover of $408,116 when racing resumes Wednesday with the co-featured ninth race serving as the penultimate leg of the sequence. The $47,000 optional-claiming test for fillies and mares will be decided, weather permitting, at 1 1/16 miles on turf.

Key contenders in the wide-open feature include the lightly raced Cured by Kitten, fellow Kentucky invaders Kallio and Little Irishdancer, Diamond Play, and Indygita.

The race shares top billing with a six-furlong optional-claiming dash for 2-year-olds earlier on the card that lured six starters, five of whom are coming off their maiden wins.

◗ Another trainer with reason to celebrate over the weekend was Shamir Maragh, who registered his first career victory with Jacks a Warrior in Sunday’s third race. Maragh had come close on numerous previous occasions before finally picking up the milestone win Sunday, entering the race with 7 seconds and 3 thirds from 14 previous starts.

◗ There will be only one stakes race on the schedule this coming weekend, the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector, which attracted 14 nominations led by trainer Todd Pletcher’s Coal Front, a two-time graded stakes winner at 3 but with only one start under his belt as a 4-year-old this year. Conquest Big E., upset winner of the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile here last winter, and Grade 3 winner Wild Shot also are among the key nominees in the seven-furlong fixture.