Mandate (44-1) scores in Artie Schiller; trainer's 1st stakes win
Mandate, expertly handled by Andrew Wolfsont, rallied from last-of-9 at odds of 44-1 to capture Saturday’s $150,000 Artie Schiller, a one-mile inner turf test for 3-year-olds and up at Aqueduct Racetrack.
Owned by Bruno Schickedanz, the victory provided a first career stakes win for both Mandate and his trainer Robert J. W. Johnston.
“This is amazing,” Johnston said. “We work hard every day. I’ve been in the business since I could walk. My dad [C.R. Johnston] was a trainer and this is amazing being here and watching these guys that I’ve looked up to all my life. I told my boss, ‘You got me up against all these big guys.' I’ve been with Mr. Schickedanz all my life. I ran his farm for eight years, so this is great to do together.”
Mandate, who exited the outermost post, could see them all heading into the first turn as Rinaldi, with Luis Saez up, set splits of 24.67 seconds, 49.83 and 1:14.41 over the good going.
Tell Your Daddy, winner of the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch in September at Saratoga Race Course, assumed a stalking position under Hall of Famer John Velazquez and advanced outside rivals into the final turn with Mandate following his lead. Tell Your Daddy reeled in Rinaldi, who faded in the final sixteenth, but Mandate continued to find more and powered outside of Tell Your Daddy to win by 1 3/4-lengths in a final time of 1:39.07.
Tell Your Daddy completed the exacta by 1 1/4-lengths over the late-running Flavius. Rinaldi, March to the Arch, Bodecream, Breaking the Rules, Olympic Runner and En Wye Cee rounded out the order of finish. Field Pass and main-track only entrants Our Last Buck and Bal Harbour were scratched.
A 4-year-old son of Blame, Mandate was making his stakes debut out of a rallying starter allowance score on October 10 traveling 1 1/16-miles over firm Laurel Park turf. That score, at odds of 16-1, was also accomplished from the outermost post 9 with Wolfsont at the helm.
“He made that outside move and in that same position as in his last race at Laurel. It just looked like a replay of his last race,” Johnston said. “When I saw those white blinkers making up ground on the outside, I got excited. I had faith in the horse, he was doing everything well.”
The victory marked the fifth career stakes score for Wolfsont and first outside the state of Pennsylvania.
“I’m on cloud nine,” Wolfsont said. “This is the biggest stakes race I’ve won in my career. I won a few other state-bred stakes up in Pennsylvania, so this is pretty special for me.”
Wolfsont said Mandate was travelling well throughout.
"As soon as we straightened out on the backside, I could feel they were going way too slow,” Wolfsont said. “I just took him out, let him drag me alongside. Going into the second turn, I felt him going nice and easy, so I let him carry me to the front. I felt like I was moving too soon, but he was doing it so easily. I just let him be happy and we went on our way.”
Bred in Kentucky by International Equities Holding, Mandate banked $82,500 in victory while improving his record to 18-5-4-0. Sent to post as the longest shot on the board, he paid $91.50 for a $2 win ticket.