ARCADIA, Calif. - Richard Mandella professes no particular insight regarding the mysteries of the heart. Life's tough enough just coming up with matching socks. Still, when it came to young Pleasantly Perfect's apparently imperfect ticker, the trainer was determined to fathom the cause. He did - that should be obvious by now - and as a result American racing has a ferocious beast with which to contend.
NEW YORK - For better or worse, America's best-known horseplayer is neither Andrew Beyer, nor Kent Meyer, the newly crowned Handicapper of the Year, nor Graham Stone, the South Dakotan who hit the Breeders' Cup Pick Six for $2.8 million. Any "Family Feud"-style survey of 100 Americans would probably yield a No. 1 answer of Pete Rose, whose recently published memoir, the best-seller "My Prison Without Bars," includes numerous references to racing and tales of the track.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Cajun Beat threw the first punch, winning the Mr. Prospector Handicap at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 3. Shake You Down countered with his runaway victory in the Sunshine Millions Sprint, also at Gulfstream, on Jan. 24.
Now it's the old guy's turn, as Bluesthestandard steps into the ring to commence his 7-year-old campaign Sunday in the Palos Verdes Handicap at Santa Anita Park. With that, the race for 2004's top sprinter will officially be underway.
NEW YORK - There were no genuinely surprising winners announced Monday night at the Eclipse Awards, but some of the voting margins were either much wider or much narrower than anyone could have predicted, providing some interesting final reflections on the 2003 racing season.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Robert McNair can be excused if he is not front and center at Santa Anita Park on Saturday to witness the 2004 debut of his 6-year-old war horse, Congaree, in the San Antonio Handicap.
As the man who brought Sunday's Super Bowl to Houston, McNair figured he'd better stay close to home and catch Congaree via satellite. You never know when something might come up, some last-minute detail with the big show, or one more interview required by one of the 3,200 members of the media in town.
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - The evening began with a flourish from the worshipful "Seabiscuit," wandered politely down memory lane with refugees from both "The Partridge Family" and "The Monkees," then got clubbed with a baseball bat and stuffed in a car trunk by one very good fella who was determined to leave a dramatic impression.
TUCSON, Ariz. - Mark the date and time.
As of 10 a.m. Wednesday morning, Nelson Avenue in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., changed forever.
So, as a matter of fact, did the racetracks on both sides of that narrow road, storied Saratoga Racetrack on the east side and charming Saratoga Raceway on the west.
And so did Saratoga Springs itself.
When general manager Skip Carlson opened the doors at Saratoga Gaming and Raceway on Wednesday morning, he opened a new era for the town. Or was it an old era, a return to the days when Saratoga was the gaming mecca of the East?
ARCADIA, Calif. - It was late in the afternoon last Saturday before the sun finally made an appearance on the distant horizon. By then, Santa Anita's version of Magna Entertainment's Sunshine Millions was safely in the books, played out beneath cloudy skies, and the tote boards were glowing in the deep twilight.
It was a stiff upper lip kind of day, and not just for the 18,000 or so fans who bundled up and braved the bitter taste of Southern California winter. With temperatures sinking as low as 55 (eat your heart out, Boston), those who put on the show were compromised as well.
LAS VEGAS - There are tough races, where a horseplayer has trouble finding value or choosing between a couple of closely matched contenders. There are really tough races, where half the field looks fully capable of winning and you're not entirely sure you ended up with the correct half.
And then there are skullbusters - races that can drive a handicapper to drink, preferably something including a jigger of arsenic. These are the races that made three men very happy this weekend at the National Handicapping Championship here in Las Vegas.