No time for Mandella to celebrate 2,000th victory

ARCADIA, Calif. – When Catch a Flight won Saturday’s $100,750 Precisionist Stakes at Santa Anita, giving trainer Richard Mandella the 2,000th win of his career, there was no raucous post-race celebration.

“I was in bed by 8 p.m.,” Mandella said.

In fairness to the 64-year-old Mandella, there was a job to do, and other runners that needed attention, on Sunday when training resumed before dawn. Any extensive celebrations can be held if Catch a Flight reaches Mandella’s early summer goal of winning the $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on June 27.

Saturday, Catch a Flight closed from fifth in a field of eight to win the Grade 3 Precisionist Stakes by three-quarters of a length over Sammy Mandeville. For the 5-year-old Catch a Flight, the Precisionist was his first stakes win in his 14th career start. He was third in a Group 1 race at 1 1/2 miles on turf in Brazil in 2014, and third to Shared Belief and Moreno in the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on March 7.

There is a chance Catch a Flight could run in the $200,000 Californian Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on May 30 before the Gold Cup at 1 1/4 miles.

“I think he can get a mile and a quarter,” he said. “The Gold Cup is the big goal. Whether we’ll run in the Californian, we’ll see.”

Mandella had two stakes wins on the weekend, beginning with Avenge’s victory in Friday’s $78,550 Ultrafleet Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on the hillside turf course.

The success may continue next weekend. Mandella has leading runners in two graded stakes next Saturday – the two-time champion Beholder in the $300,000 Vanity Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles on dirt, and the South American import Bal a Bali in the $100,000 American Stakes at a mile on turf.

Beholder will be part of a small field that includes Warren’s Veneda, who is unbeaten in three stakes this year, including the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Stakes on March 14.

The race will not have many runners. Oscar Party, third in the Santa Lucia Stakes behind Beholder on April 10; and Thegirlinthatsong, who won the Grade 2 La Canada Stakes in February and was third to Warren’s Veneda in the Santa Margarita, are among the 13 nominees.

Mandella nominated three other fillies and mares – Gas Total, Sayes So, and Wasted at Midnight – but said on Sunday they are unlikely to start unless the race is desperate for entries. At the same time, he admits that a placing by one of those runners would greatly enhance their values.

“I don’t plan to run anything other than Beholder,” Mandella said. “You don’t want to turn your nose up to black type. Those are two good mares and they’ll discourage other people.”