With United, Mandella's out to win stakes named for 'everybody's hero'
After a trip to Dubai for the $6 million Sheema Classic (G1) that never came to fruition because of the coronavirus, United is safe and sound at home with Richard Mandella preparing for the May 23 Charles Whittingham Stakes (G2) going a mile and a quarter at Santa Anita Park.
“I took him to Dubai to school him,” Mandella said in typical self-deprecating fashion. “Seriously, he came back well, he’s in great shape and there’s not a race I’d rather win than the Whittingham.”
The grass marathon is named for Charlie Whittingham, a racing icon who reached a training plateau his peers can only dream of approaching.
Whittingham won more than 2,500 races including the San Juan Capistrano Stakes a remarkable 14 times.
A three-time Eclipse Award winner, the “Bald Eagle” was the oldest trainer of a Kentucky Derby winner twice, with Ferdinand in 1986 and Sunday Silence in 1989. Art Sherman surpassed Whittingham in 2014 by winning the Run for the Roses at the age of 77 with California Chrome.
“Whittingham was one of my heroes, but he was everybody’s hero,” said Mandella, not one to heap praise lightly and not effusing kudos simply because Charlie’s ghost might be hovering about.
You see, Mandella is headquartered in Barn 4 at Santa Anita, where Whittingham held fort for decades until he died at 86 on April 20, 1999.
“Charlie always talked about a tin can filled with a recipe for peaches that he buried at the barn, and only Molly knew where he hid it,” Mandella said, resurrecting a favorite Whittingham yarn he was wont to spin.
“I’ve dug up every foot of land around there and can’t find the can.”
But back to the business at hand.
“All the horses returning from Dubai had to go through quarantine in New York, then flew home from there,” Mandella said. “Sheikh Mohammad and his CEO of the Dubai Racing Club, Frank Gabriel, went beyond the call of duty to get the horses out safely before the virus shut down racing.
“Gabriel worked 24 hours a day to get it done. He really felt terrible about the cancellation and did everything to make it as right as he could to get them home.”
A 5-year-old by Giant's Causeway, LNJ Foxwoods' United hasn't missed the board as part of a six-race steak dating back to last year's Whittingham. Over that span, he ran second in the Breeders' Cup Turf and last time out won Santa Anita's Feb. 1 San Marcos Stakes (G2).