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Richard Eugene Mandella (born November 5, 1950, in Altadena, California), is a Thoroughbred horse trainer and a member of the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame.
Mandella's father, a blacksmith, introduced him to horses at an early age and while still in high school he began starting and training horses at a nearby ranch. He spent a year in New York as assistant to Lefty Nickerson and then took a job with Texas horseman Roger Braugh in 1974.
Two years later, Mandella returned to California and opened his own stable. His wins began almost immediately with Bad 'n Big and continued with Phone Trick, Dare and Go, and Pleasantly Perfect. Between 1996 and 1998, Mandella won six straight million dollar races in Southern California with Dare and Go, Siphon, Gentlemen, and Malek. He has started six horses in the Kentucky Derby.
Mandella was inducted into the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame in 2001, and in 2003 he had four winners in the Breeders' Cup: Pleasantly Perfect, Johar, Halfbridled, and Action This Day.
In 2006, Mandella wrote the introduction to Santa Anita Morning Rhapsody, by photographer-author Karen S. Davis, a book documenting morning thoroughbred racetrack training. "Most people who enjoy racing don't realize how special these early hours are, watching ... the relationship between horse and man," he wrote.
In 2019, he ended his 13-year drought for stakes races outside of California. After remaining winless outside of his home state since winning the Arlington Million in 2006, Mandella captured the Rebel Stakes and Arkansas Derby with Omaha Beach.
Mandella lives in Bradbury, California, with his wife Randi, son Gary (also a trainer), and daughter Andrea.
Gary Lynn Stevens is an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey, actor, and sports analyst. He became a professional jockey in 1979 and rode his first of three Kentucky Derby winners in 1988. He had nine wins in Triple Crown races, winning the Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes three times each, as well as ten Breeders' Cup races. He was also a nine-time winner of the Santa Anita Derby. He entered the United States Racing Hall of Fame in 1997. Combining his U.S. and international wins, Stevens had over 5,000 race wins by 2005, and reached his 5,000th North American win on February 15, 2015.
Darrell Wayne Lukas is an American horse trainer and a U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee. He has won twenty Breeders' Cup races, received five Eclipse Awards for his accomplishments, and his horses have won 25 year-end Eclipse Awards. He was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2007.
Jerry D. Bailey is an NBC Sports thoroughbred racing analyst and a retired American Hall of Fame jockey.
Sunday Silence was an American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In 1989, he won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes but failed to complete the Triple Crown when he was defeated in the Belmont Stakes. Nevertheless, he won the Breeders' Cup Classic and was voted American Champion Three-Year-Old Colt and American Horse of the Year that same year. Sunday Silence's racing career was marked by his rivalry with Easy Goer, whom he had a three to one edge over in their head-to-head races. Easy Goer, the 1988 American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt finished second to Sunday Silence in the Kentucky Derby the Preakness, and the Breeders' Cup Classic. However, Easy Goer prevailed by eight lengths in the Belmont denying Sunday Silence the Triple Crown. Both horses were later voted into the American Hall of Fame.
Alex O. Solis is a jockey based in the United States. He lives in Glendora, California and rides predominantly in Southern California. He got his big break and his first gained national prominence when he won the 1986 Preakness Stakes with Snow Chief. In 2014, he was elected to the horse racing hall of fame and on January 1, 2015, became the 29th jockey in North American history to have 5,000 wins.
Edward J. Delahoussaye is a retired American Thoroughbred jockey from New Iberia, Louisiana.
A.P. Indy was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the Belmont Stakes and Breeders' Cup Classic on his way to American Horse of the Year honors in 1992. His time in the Belmont Stakes tied Easy Goer for the second-fastest running in the history of the race, behind his damsire Secretariat.
Neil D. Drysdale is an American-based thoroughbred race horse trainer.
Claude R. "Shug" McGaughey III is an American Hall of Fame thoroughbred horse trainer.
William I. "Bill" Mott is an American horse trainer, most notable for his work with Cigar. Mott earned the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer in 1995 and 1996. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1998 at the age of 45, becoming the youngest thoroughbred trainer ever inducted. Mott started training thoroughbreds at age 15 and won the South Dakota Futurity with Kosmic Tour before he was out of high school. He worked his way up the ranks by becoming first an exercise rider, then an assistant trainer for Hall of Fame Trainer Jack Van Berg. In 1976, Mott, trainer Frank Brothers, and a stable crew guided Van Berg's horses through the wins at Sportsman's, Hawthorne and Arlington Park race tracks in Chicago. They were so successful that Van Berg was named leading trainer at Arlington Park and leading trainer in the Nation with 496 wins in 1976, a record that stood until Steve Asmussen broke it in 2003 with 555 wins. Asmussen broke his own record in 2008 and 2009. Mott worked as an assistant trainer for Van Berg for three years before striking out on his own in 1978.
Perfect Drift, is an American thoroughbred racehorse.
LeRoy S. Jolley was an American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred horse trainer. The son of horse trainer Moody Jolley, LeRoy Jolley had been around horses all his life and at age nineteen received a New York State trainer's license.
Gentlemen is an Argentinian Thoroughbred racehorse. He was the Champion Three-Year-Old Colt in Argentina and then raced successfully in the United States.
The Thoroughbred Corporation is a Thoroughbred horse racing and breeding operation established in 1994 by principal partner Prince Ahmed bin Salman of the Saudi Arabian royal family. It was based at an 18-acre (73,000 m2) facility at Bradbury Estates, in Bradbury, California.
Steven Mark Asmussen is an American Thoroughbred racehorse trainer. The leading trainer in North America by wins, he is a two-time winner of the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer and was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2016. His horses have won the Breeders' Cup Classic, Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes, Travers Stakes, Breeders' Cup Distaff, Kentucky Oaks and Dubai World Cup.
Ronald L. McAnally is an American Hall of Fame trainer in Thoroughbred horse racing. Called "one of the most honored and respected of North American trainers" by Thoroughbred Times Co., Inc, as a child, he and his four siblings were placed in an orphanage following the death of their mother. As an adult, he regularly donates funds to the Covington Protestant Children's Home where he was raised.
James A. Jerkens is an American Thoroughbred horse trainer. His father, U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee H. Allen Jerkens, and brother, Steve Jerkens, are also trainers.
Ogden Mills "Dinny" Phipps was an American financier, Thoroughbred racehorse industry executive, and horse breeder. Widely known by the nickname "Dinny," he was chairman of the family's Bessemer Trust until retiring in 1994, and served as its vice chairman.
Beholder is an American Thoroughbred racehorse and multiple Eclipse Award winner. Her most memorable performance was defeating the champion filly Songbird by a nose in the 2016 Breeders' Cup Distaff. Her other notable wins include the 2012 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, the 2013 Breeders' Cup Distaff and the 2015 Pacific Classic against male horses. She is the first horse since 1976 to win a Grade One race at age 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, and one of only two horses to have ever won three Breeders' Cup races. She was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2022, her first year of eligibility.
Peter L. Miller is an American Thoroughbred racehorse trainer who is best known for back-to-back double wins at the Breeders' Cup in 2017 and 2018. He has won multiple training titles at Del Mar Racetrack and his horses have accumulated over $68 million in career earnings.