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3/10/08
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RICHARD MANDELLA
Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella is not in his tack room office between sets at Del Mar this morning. Instead, the son of a blacksmith is at the end of the long indoor barn, artfully sweeping a rasp across a back hoof of a two-year-old Storm Cat filly. When prompted, he says, simply, “The basics are what make this game work. Believe me, basic horsemanship will hold you in good stead. It’s the most important thing. Knowing that a horse is shod as correct as he can be, that the blacksmith’s doing a good job –” “You?” Embarrassed, he downplays his handiwork. “No, I tinker around, that’s all. I don’t do it every day. And it doesn’t make me any better than anybody else.”
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Richard Mandella with his Grade 1 winner Into Mischief
EFORE one of his sets goes out, he addresses Paul Nilluang – a 22-year Mandella veteran (lengthy associations are not uncommon in the Mandella stable), on a high-end claimer: “Give me a minute. Let me ride him,” and he swings his leg over the horse. As the trainer guides the colt around in figure eights, Nilluang says, “He knows everything about riding.” Back on the ground, Mandella is dismissive. “People’ll think I’m showing off.” Or maybe we’ll get a greater understanding of why he’s really good at what he does, with an in-depth, firsthand knowledge of each of his horses. Mandella always knew what he wanted to do. He says, “My father had a little ranch [in California] where we trained a little bit of everything: a few Quarter Horses, a few Thoroughbreds, a few Appaloosas. We’d make a roping horse out of one that couldn’t run. We were just a little mom-and-
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