Columnist Ralph Siraco: Eclipse Award for trainer still wide open

Ralph Siraco

Monday, Nov. 3, 2003 | 9:49 a.m.

Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears Monday and his Southern California selections run Tuesday-Sunday.

This year's Eclipse Award for outstanding trainer is a tale of two accomplishments.

First there is Bobby Frankel, 62,who has had a banner year. He broke the North American single-season earnings record Oct. 31.

With two months to go, Frankel broke another Hall Of Fame trainer's mark of $17,842,358 when the $28,800 earned by Golden Rahy in Friday's feature race at Santa Anita eclipsed the record for earnings at $17,854,877. The record had been set by trainer D. Wayne Lukas in 1988, the year in which Lukas won three Breeders' Cup races from a dozen starters.

Frankel also won a record 23 Grade I stakes events so far in 2003 with a few more Grade I races left on this year's calendar.

While Frankel has captured practically every big race with an arsenal of horseflesh throughout the year, it is the big events of the sport on the big days that Frankel has yet to master the way he has dominated other stakes events from east to west throughout the year.

This year, Frankel came to Louisville in search of his first Kentucky Derby win with the favorite Empire Maker. Frankel is still looking for the Derby trophy while his record in the run for the roses stands at 0-for-6.

It gets worse for the Breeders' Cup. Frankel had eight starters in five Breeders' Cup events at Santa Anita this year, but none won.

So, while Frankel has struck out six times in four Derby attempts, he stands at 2-for-57 in the Breeders' Cup, having won the 2002 Filly & Mare Turf with Starine and his first BC victory with Squirtle Squirt in the 2001 Sprint.

This, a stark contrast to Lukas' record 17 Breeders' Cup wins and 4 Derby victories.

Although Lukas participated in both the Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup with no success this year, his achievements in these marquee events are still benchmarks.

That is where trainer Richard Mandella emerged as an Eclipse Award contender. It happened on Breeders' Cup day. Mandella, who turns 53 on Nov. 5, eclipsed Lukas' record of three wins on a single Breeders' Cup card by taking half of the eight-race series on October 25.

Mandella started seven horses in four Breeders' Cup races to manage the new single-day record in the World Thoroughbred Championships. He started with Halfbridled, who came bounding home a winning favorite, at $2.30 on the dollar, in the Juvenile Fillies. A most impressive winner who scored from the extreme outside post 13 in the 1 1/16th miles division title decider. Mandella saddled three in the Juvenile and returned to the winners circle when Action This Day upset the field at $55.60 while completing the exacta with another entrant Minister Eric, who finished 2nd. His third runner, Siphonizer finished 10th.

In the Turf, Mandella sent out a pair of runners in The Tin Man and Johar. He would be part of another record on the day when Johar finished in the first deadheat in Breeders' Cup history. Hitting the finish line on even terms with defending Turf winner High Chaparral, Johar gave Mandella another Turf victory.

In 1993, Mandella won both the Juvenile Fillies with Phone Chatter and the Turf with Kotashaan. The Tin Man finished fourth.

The Classic would complete a career day for Mandella. His sole entrant, Pleasantly Perfect rallied from eighth in the ten-horse field to capture the Classic over Medaglia d'Oro. Pleasantly Perfect paid $30.40 for the upset win.

Mandella banked a record $4,564,040 in earning by his horses en route to victories in the $1 million Juvenile Fillies, the $1.5 million Juvenile, the $2 million Turf and the $4 million Classic. Although Lukas has a Breeders' Cup record total of over $18.6 million earned by his runners, he never had a bigger Breeders' Cup day than Mandella did this year.

So, while Mandella's Breeders' Cup overall record shows 6-for-26 and a Kentucky Derby record of 0-for-4, the burning question for Eclipse Award voters will be whether the record-breaking accomplishments by Mandella on the sport's championship day of racing outweighs a record-breaking year of performances by Frankel-trained runners.

That question will continue to burn like the California wildfires until the votes are cast later this year.