DEL MAR – For “Go West, young man,” make it “Go best, young colt.”
The slightly twisted famous words widely attributed to Horace Greeley were appropriate yesterday for an equine that counts as a slightly twisted namesake.
Horse Greeley, a son of Mr. Greeley out of the Storm Cat mare Chile Chatte, proved best in a field of seven 2-year-old males and won the traditional closing-day featured $250,000 Del Mar Futurity as the 67th summer racing season wrapped up here.
Ridden by Victor Espinoza for trainer Richard Mandella, Horse Greeley won for the second time in three career starts, all of them here during the 43-day meeting, and stamped himself as one of the top juveniles in the nation.
The last two Futurity winners, Declan's Moon and Stevie Wonderboy, went on to capture Eclipse Awards as 2-year-old of the year. Mandella, a Hall of Fame trainer, wouldn't mind seeing his colt extend the line,
“I like that idea,” said Mandella, who'll take Horse Greeley to Santa Anita where the Oak Tree meeting begins on Sept. 27. The $250,000 Norfolk Stakes on Oct. 8 is designed as a prep for the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile on Nov. 4 at Churchill Downs.
Mandella's instructions to Espinoza before the Futurity were to try to get a clean break and good position without rushing Horse Greeley too hard.
“Saying that, I reminded (Espinoza) that (Horse Greeley) had only run twice and not to make Silky Sullivan out of him,” Mandella said.
The colt exited the gate awkwardly but, as Mandella saw it: “After a couple of steps he put himself right in the race and there wasn't much else to it.”
Espinoza placed the stocky chestnut colt second behind Stormello through fractions of :22.32 and :44.84 seconds for the first half mile. Horse Greeley then went resolutely from stalker to leader, gaining a 1½-length advantage at the top of the stretch and winning by 1¾ lengths over Great Hunter.
Stormello finished third, 1¼ lengths behind Great Hunter as Horse Greeley clocked 1:22.93 for seven furlongs.
Espinoza, who won a track-record seven races on Monday, completed a sweep of Del Mar's top juvenile stakes. He won the Debutante, filly counterpart to the Futurity, on Monday with Point Ashley.
Espinoza's third Futurity win, behind Declan's Moon and Officer (2001), was a meet-leading 11th in a stakes this season and the 53rd of his career here.
“He's still a baby, still learning,” Espinoza said of Horse Greeley. “But he's such a big, strong horse and he's got that quick acceleration.”
Horse Greeley is bred and owned by Ted and Martha Parfet. The Parfets are longtime clients of Mandella and gave him Chile Chatte to train.
Chile Chatte produced some “funny looking” previous babies, according to Mandella.
“But she put it all into this one,” he said. “I think he's really good. It's no secret, you look at him in the paddock and he looks like a man playing with boys.”
Sent off at just over 3-1 odds, Horse Greeley returned $8.40 to win. The $150,000 winner's share of the purse increased his earnings to $192,400.
The meeting closed with numbers slightly down from the record 2005 season. On-track attendance totaled 716,293 for an average of 16,658, off 2 percent. Total handle of more than $582 million was exceeded only by the $608 million of last year.
“Everything considered, this was another highly successful season,” Del Mar Thoroughbred Club President, CEO and General Manager Joe Harper said. “The warm temperatures and humidity definitely had an affect on our attendance early on, but I'm pleased that we were able to stage a comeback in the final few weeks.”
Hank Wesch: (619) 293-1853; hank.wesch@uniontrib.com
