Pacific Classic: Mandella puts Geaux Rocket Ride to bigger test

There is a dry quality to Richard Mandella’s sense of humor that keeps reporters on their toes. The impish glint in his eyes can be sensed even on the other end of a telephone call 1,800 miles away.

Just as easy to sense this week was Mandella’s pride in Geaux Rocket Ride, a 3-year-old in whom he has shown a lot of confidence. Enough to challenge the colt to be tested by older horses and the 1 1/4-mile distance Saturday in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar.

“I wouldn’t be there if I wasn’t optimistic,” the Hall of Fame trainer said during a break from training Thursday morning. “I’d be looking for the 3-year-old race the next day. I hope I’m glad I didn’t do that.”

No Shared Belief Stakes for this lightly raced colt. Mandella was buoyed by Geaux Rocket Ride’s July 22 win over Kentucky Derby winner Mage in the Haskell (G1) at Monmouth Park. So, too, was morning-line writer Jon White, who made the son of Candy Ride the 5-2 program favorite for Saturday’s $1 million race that is an automatic qualifier for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

“He’s just a very talented horse that acts like he’s run 15 times,” Mandella said in the conversation for Horse Racing Nation’s Ron Flatter Racing Pod. “Every race has been that way. I just thought he was ready for that kind of thing.”

Mandella also thought the $350,000 colt owned by Jim and Dana Bernhard’s Pin Oak Stud was ready in April for the Santa Anita Derby (G1). After a debut win in January, Geaux Rocket Ride established his bona fides with a second-place finish March 4 in the San Felipe (G2) that was worth a 96 Beyer Speed Figure from Daily Racing Form.

Unfortunately, only hours before the Santa Anita Derby on April 8, another number came up even higher.

“He had a 103-and-change temperature that morning,” Mandella said. “Obviously, we scratched and didn’t run. We let him have enough time to get over it and come back, and that worked.”

Dreams of a Kentucky Derby may have been shattered, but Mandella had been down this road before. Four years ago he had to scratch morning-line favorite Omaha Beach from the Kentucky Derby. Mandella heard a cough three days before the race, and he ordered a scoping that revealed an entrapped epiglottis.

Ever patient with his horses and ever mindful of their well-being, Mandella rewrote the script for Geaux Rocket Ride. One might say he has continued to do so since a June 4 comeback resulted in a 1 3/4-length victory and a 90 Beyer from the Affirmed Stakes at Santa Anita.

Mandella rarely goes to the Haskell. The only other time he went before this summer was in 2000, and he won with Dixie Union. As confident as he might have felt six weeks ago, he admitted he did not expect Geaux Rocket Ride to perform as well as he did.

“Well, you don’t expect to beat the Kentucky Derby winner and the horse that (Bob) Baffert has said all along is a really good horse,” Mandella said. “If he doesn’t know what one is, nobody would.”

Baffert’s horse Arabian Knight was the even-money favorite that day, and he was leading until the field turned for home. Geaux Rocket Ride passed him, and Arabian Knight wilted. Mage took up the challenge in the stretch, and Geaux Rocket Ride put him away, too. Under Mike Smith’s urging, the margin opened to 1 3/4 lengths.

“Surely, when you beat those convincingly, I’m not saying surprise,” Mandella said. “But it’s a nice thing to have happened.”

A career-high 100 Beyer came with that win, and so did more respect from the international futures market for the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Bovada shortened Geaux Rocket Ride to a 10-1 third choice. Only Belmont and Travers (G1) winner Arcangelo at 5-1 and Whitney (G1) victor White Abarrio at 6-1 were shorter Saturday morning.

The Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 4 at Santa Anita will be 1 1/4 miles, just like the Pacific Classic. Considering how Geaux Rocket Ride widened his lead at the end of the 1 1/8-mile Haskell, Mandella was asked how that might translate to Saturday’s race.

With that audible glint, Mandella said, “It’s just another eighth.”

After waiting for the reaction and the requisite follow-up question, he expanded on that.

“Watching the Haskell, there’s no reason to think that it should make a difference,” Mandell said. “The difference could be whether Baffert’s horse needed a race, and he’ll improve quite a bit this time.”

Arabian Knight is back and is the 3-1 second choice on the morning line. Even with jockey Flavien Prat stepping in for the absent John Velázquez, he still may be expected to bring the early speed.

So might his 5-year-old stablemate Defunded, the 4-1 third choice in the 11-horse field. He won the Hollywood Gold Cup (G1) in May before his wide-running, fourth-place disappointment July 29 as the odds-on favorite in the San Diego Handicap (G2).

“There’s plenty of pace,” Mandella said. “Both of Baffert’s horses have speed. Stilleto Boy has had some speed on and off. And Doug O’Neill’s horse Slow Down Andy, he’s got speed. ... So there’s speed in there. You’ve got a quarter-mile through the front stretch, and it’ll all sort out by the time they get around the corner there.”

Breaking from the rail post for the second race in a row, Geaux Rocket Ride may be expected to stay close to the early leaders. Only once in his three victories was he more than 1 1/2 lengths behind at any call. Not that Mandella was tipping his hand about this weekend.

“I think all those horses can run,” Mandella said. “It’s just a matter of who’s there Saturday.”

Mandella, 72, has won the Pacific Classic four times, most recently with Beholder in 2015. That four-time Eclipse Award winner was the first and still only filly to win the race. Now he tries to make Geaux Rocket Ride the first 3-year-old in nine years and only the sixth ever to win Del Mar’s signature race that is about to be run for the 33rd time.

“We’ll know Sunday,” Mandella said, putting off any conclusions until the morning after.

Geaux Rocket Ride is one of the five horses Mandella entered in Saturday’s graded stakes at Del Mar. He also has Sumter (15-1) in the Del Mar Mile (G2), Coffee in Bed (12-1) in the Torrey Pines (G3), Lane Way (5-1) in the Green Flash Handicap (G3) and Planetario (4-1) in the Del Mar Handicap (G2), the finale on the 11-race card.

Planetario is a 5-year-old turf specialist who was bred in Brazil and came to Mandella early this year. A three-time Group 1 winner in South America, the Il Doge horse is 4: 1-1-0 in the U.S. with a win in the San Juan Capistrano (G3) and a fifth-place finish last out in the United Nations (G1) at Monmouth Park.

The intercontinental travels of Planetario inspired a signature response from Mandella. He ordered up a little ham on wry when he was asked if he had any questions before seeing the horse on the racetrack.

“No,” Mandella said firmly. “He spoke with such an accent, we couldn’t understand him.”