Dr. Rick Arthur (left) with the Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella, a 30-year client and close friend of his, at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. (opposite page)
Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella, a 30year client and close friend of the doctor? “He is a man of great integrity and honesty and he has a remarkable love for the work he does,” said Mandella. “He is an amazingly good veterinarian and certainly a good person. It’s been racing’s good fortune to have Dr. Arthur among us as a working vet. We had a special relationship and it was a real luxury for me to have that association.” Ever the jokester, Mandella couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a friendly dig. “Dr. [Jack] Robbins was my first veterinarian and Rick came up under him. I inherited him when Dr. Robbins retired, so I like to call him a hand-me-down, sort of like those old shoes my older brother used to pass along to me,” the trainer said with his trademark smile and chuckle. As for his life as a veterinarian, Dr. Arthur, a resident of Sierra Madre, said, “If I couldn’t have been an equine veterinarian, I probably breeding shed. Also considered as an all-time favorite—though not a stakes winner—by the doctor was Cattle Creek, a horse he owned in partnership with his mentor, Dr. Robbins, early in his career. The marathon runner set records for 1 1/2 miles on both the main track and the turf course at Bay Meadows within a month of each other in 1979. In addition to Mandella, Dr. Arthur’s clientele has included such other major Southern Californiabased trainers as Gary Jones, Bobby Frankel, Louis Cenicola, Jay Robbins, Noble Threewitt, Warren
Among the many accomplished Thoroughbreds who have played a meaningful role in Rick Arthur’s professional and personal life was John Henry (left), the 1981 and 1984 Eclipse Horse of the Year shown with his Hall of Fame trainer, Ron McAnally.
wouldn’t have been a veterinarian of any kind because I didn’t have any interest in doctoring cats and dogs. If I hadn’t become a veterinarian, I probably could have wound up as a horse trainer.” That’s how deep his interest has always been in the equine athletes who give so much for the love of racing and the entertainment of the fans. Dr. Arthur’s love for equines has extended to being a successful owner and breeder over the years with such horses as stakes winners Guillermo and Notably Different on the racetrack and Joni U Bar and Rio Tejo in the
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PADDOCK 2012
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