Monday, Aug. 11, 1997 | 9:24 a.m.
DEL MAR, Calif. -- There's no room for gentlemen on the race track, unless your name happens to be Gentlemen and you're the top handicap horse in the nation.
Today, the 5-year-old Argentinian bred rules the roost after an impressive 2 3/4-lengths win over Siphon and three others in Saturday's $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar.
Now there's a good chance racing fans will see Gentlemen Nov. 8 at the Breeders' Cup in Hollywood Park.
It would mean supplementing the horse to the $3 million Classic by putting up $800,000. But given how good this horse is and that one of his owners is Hollywood Park chairman R.D. Hubbard, look for the money to be paid and for Gentlemen to run in the Breeders'.
"Assuming the horse comes back sound, we're heading there," Hubbard said.
Gentlemen, who earned $600,000 for the victory and pushed his lifetime earnings to almost $2.5 million, also won the MGM Grand Classic Crown bonus of $250,000 for the most points in the MGM series -- the Santa Anita Handicap, Hollywood Gold Cup and Pacific Classic. Gentlemen's 25 points nipped Siphon, who had 24, and Sandpit, who had 12.
Preferring to linger toward the back, Gentlemen, the 1-2 favorite of the crowd of 26,476 that showed up at Del Mar, let Crafty Friend and Siphon have their way up front. Siphon went by the early pacesetter at the 5/16ths pole and Gentlemen began to find his best stride.
He caught Siphon on the turn for home and began to draw away, winning in 2:00.2, a full second off the track record.
What's scary is that Gentlemen didn't care for Del Mar's new surface, which has been loaded with sand to provide softer footing.
"The competition isn't going to like this but you didn't get to see the real Gentlemen today," said jockey Gary Stevens. "He hated it out there. He never changed leads except for 20 yards going into the far turn. He was on his left lead all the way around and he wouldn't get off it.
"He was never comfortable at any point in the race and he still ran like that. This is one amazing racehorse."
Trainer Dick Mandella won't argue. When asked if he was training the nation's top horse, Mandella, who has won five straight million-dollar races in California, said, "It looks like it. I don't see a horse beating him for horse of the year. But I'm prejudiced from where I sit. That's up for you guys (in the media) to decide."
Mandella, who won this race last year in dramatic fashion when his Dare and Go upset Cigar at odds of 39-1, said comparing the two victories wouldn't be fair.
"It's a completely different situation," he said. "It's like being at opposite ends of the spectrum. Last year, I was another challenger trying to beat Cigar. This year, I was expected to win and I'd have been disappointed had we not won."
Mandella said he needs to find a spot between now and Nov. 8 to run Gentlemen. There was talk of running in the Aug. 24 Arlington Million outside of Chicago, but that's not going to happen. One, it's too close to the Pacific Classic and two, it would mean returning to the grass, a surface Gentlemen hasn't run on since last November.
But that's not to say Mandella won't run Gentlemen on the turf before the Breeders' Cup. Or even in the Breeders' Cup.
Hubbard mentioned the Breeders' Mile, which is run on the grass, as a possible alternative to running in the Classic, which is 1 1/4 miles on the dirt.
Mandella said one possibility is the Jockey Club Gold Cup in mid-October at Belmont Park. It would mean a cross-country plane ride for Gentlemen, but assuming he came out of the race in good shape, he'd have just three weeks to recover for the Breeders' Cup.
"What we do depends on Gentlemen's condition," Mandella said. "We don't want to destroy what we've built up."
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