Mandella Back In Arkansas With 'Omaha'

Trainer Richard Mandella was scheduled to be the second of three guests on Tuesday's NTRA national media teleconference ahead of this weekend's GI Arkansas Derby. Instead, given that he was hot walking the just-arrived colt around the shedrow on the Oaklawn backstretch, his appearance was pushed back just a bit before he graciously answered questions on GII Rebel S. hero Omaha Beach (War Front), the likely favorite this weekend, and on the ongoing turmoil at Santa Anita.

“He looks like he traveled really well, everything's good,” Mandella said, shank in one hand, phone in the other.

One of four horses trained by the Hall of Famer for Rick Porter's Fox Hill Farm, Omaha Beach–a $625,000 buyback out of the 2017 Keeneland September sale–made his first three starts on turf before missing by a half-length to the well-regarded Nolo Contesto (Pioneerof the Nile) in his first dirt appearance Jan. 4. The half-brother to champion Take Charge Brandi (Giant's Causesway), whose MGISW second dam Take Charge Lady (Dehere) produced champion Will Take Charge (Unbridled's Song) and GISW Take Charge Indy (A.P. Indy), graduated by a romping nine lengths in the Santa Anita slop Feb. 2 and exits a narrow success from champion Game Winner (Candy Ride {Arg}) in the Rebel.

Though Omaha Beach displayed above-average ability on the turf, with a third and two seconds, Mandella explained the reason for the belated switch to the main track

“He finally said to me after his last grass race, 'Boss, you ought to run on the grass, not me,'” he said in his trademark deadpan fashion. “When he was getting ready for his first start, he was a good work horse, but not a show off. War Fronts had been so good on the turf, I just thought it might be a good way to start. He ran well, so I tried it again and he ran well, so I tried it again. If you beat me in the head enough times, I finally get it. Once we got serious about running, his works have always been like a first-class horse. It's not a surprise to us that he's that good.”

Mandella was also typically tongue-in-cheek when asked what his thoughts were in the stretch of the Rebel

“I was fully confident we were going to win that race,” he said laughing. “It scared me to death at the eighth pole when Game Winner looked like he was the dominant horse and then my horse looked at him and dug back in and beat him. I couldn't have been more proud.”

And with that, Mandella is poised to saddle his seventh horse in the GI Kentucky Derby, now a $3-million race, some 35 years after Bedouin (Al Hattab) finished 15th to Swale in 1984 when total prize money was $250,000. Omaha Beach is set to be his first Derby runner in 15 years and Mandella is confident that his regally bred colt will see out the trip and is happy to be in with a chance.

“He's so kind and smart, I think he'd do whatever we ask him now that he's a professional racehorse,” he said. “There's plenty of competition out there and we're worried about all of them, but I wouldn't trade with anybody.”

Arkansas Derby doings aside, Mandella also addressed the current situation in California, including this coming Friday's whip-free program at Santa Anita.

“It will be an interesting experiment,” he said. “I can sure see not overwhipping horses or whipping a horse that's just stopping and out of gas–there's no sense beating them up. I think adjustments are coming and probably should be. Going to zero is probably not going to satisfy the betting public, which is very important. I'd hate to think of a guy having his last horse on the Pick 6, nose and nose, and the boy couldn't do anything to help encourage it across the wire, what the guy might do. Hopefully the betting public will be patient and ride it out a little bit.

He continued, “Saying that, it's a question being forced on us by the animal rights people and then the government officials. It's not something we all just thought to do, but maybe there's something good that will come of it. It will all work out. It'll be tried and adjustments made that will make the game better. Whatever they are, I am happy to work with.”

Mandella echoed some of the same sentiments that his colleague Bob Baffert expressed during last week's teleconference as it relates to his relationship with his equine athletes.

“My horses are my family, same as most of the people that work for me,” he said. “[They're] our best friends, our relatives, this is our life. They mean the world to us. Saying that, there is always going to be some bad apple in the bunch, you can't help that.”

He concluded, “Racing maybe needs to do a better job of showing the good in it rather than waiting for the criticism and then trying to defend ourselves.”