Mandella On Training Top Two-Year-Olds
August 30th, 2007By Gene Williams
Richard Mandella
Benoit Photo
Don’t rush them. Make them show you what they can do. Don’t kid yourself. And remember they’re the ones who are going to race, not you.
Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella sees it that way when it comes to preparing a two-year-old for a major juvenile stakes race such as the Del Mar Debutante (G1) or Del Mar Futurity (G1).
Though he’s had success in the two races, with two Futurity winners in the past four years and a couple of prime prospects this year and a Debutante winner — Halfbridled — four years ago, Mandella is not one to think he has all the answers on how to approach races of this magnitude.
So how does he go about it? “The first thing is to get a pretty good horse,” the trainer says. “And when you think he can run, you need to get him to his first race and make sure you’re not just kidding yourself, which a lot of us do.”
Without measuring one era against another, Mandella said, “Any more, two-year-olds are raced so lightly and they’re started so late, they may break their maiden and go right into a stakes race, because there aren’t many allowance races around for them.
“If you think you have a good horse, give him his chance in a maiden race, and then, if you think he’s good enough, take your chances in a stakes race.”
Mandella has won the Futurity both with a one-time winner, last year’s Horse Greeley, and a horse – 2003 winner Siphonizer – who broke his maiden, then finished on the board in the Best Pal (G2) before the Futurity. His two prospects this year, Kanan Dume and Dixie Chatter, are both maiden winners.
“If you run, say, in June then you have a chance to start in an allowance race or a smaller stakes before you jump into a bigger one,” Mandella said. “It all depends on when you can get the horses ready to run and when they can make their first starts.”
At the suggestion that a schedule that doesn’t leave much wiggle room must put a lot of pressure on a trainer to get to a race such as the Debutante or the Futurity, Mandella quipped, “Most of us trainers are not smart enough to feel pressure.”
With expensive yearlings and carefully bred homebreds, pedigree usually sticks out, but Mandella serves up this warning: “Automatically thinking they can run before they start is kind of a loose way of looking at things. Once you start them in a race, then you know what you have and you can go from there.”
He also cautions: “They’re two-year-olds and you need to leave a little room for error. They’re going to make mistakes. You can put down a schedule for them, but they don’t have to live up to it. You can’t force it.”
So what sort of advice might Mandella give to a young trainer getting a two-year-old ready for such a trying experience? “Don’t try to push them to do something you may want to happen instead of what they can make happen. Don’t get in the way of their development. They are the ones who are getting ready to run, not us.”
