Stable Notes Del Mar, California Friday, August 8, 1997 (Day 15)

PACIFIC CLASSIC SEXTET READY TO DO BATTLE SATURDAY AT DEL MAR

On the eve of the seventh running of the Grade I, $1,000,000 Pacific Classic, the premier event of the Del Mar racing season, everything is on "go" for the six Thoroughbreds primed to go to the post in the 1 1/4-mile Classic. All six will carry 124 pounds for the 1 1/4-mile race.

The winner's share of the purse is $600,000, with $200,000 going to second place; $120,000 for third; $60,000 for fourth; and $20,000 for fifth.

Gentlemen, favored on the morning line at 6-5, and his stablemate, Siphon, who is rated second at 9-5, will be trying to sweep the three races that make up the MGM Grand Classic Crown -- the Santa Anita Handicap, Hollywood Gold Cup and the Pacific Classic -- and take home the bulk of the $500,000 bonus money offered to any horse that participates in at least two of the races. After the first two races, Siphon leads on points with 17, and Gentlemen is next with 15. Another Mandella trainee -- Sandpit, who is skipping the Classic for the Arlington Million August 24 -- has 12 points and Marlin, trained by D. Wayne Lukas and heading for the Million, also, has six. Bonus money for the top point-getter is $250,000, with second money being $125,000, third money $75,000, and fourth money $50,000. The only thing left to determine is whether Gentlemen or Siphon wins top money.

The other four in the field -- none of whom are eligible for bonus money because this is their first run in a Classic Crown race -- are River Keen, 9-2 on the morning line; Crafty Friend at 5-1; Percutant at 12-1 and Lord Jain at 30-1. River Keen won Hollywood Park's Grade II Californian June 1 and was being groomed for the Hollywood Gold Cup but had to pass that when a slight sickness sidelined him for a short time. Crafty Friend comes to the race off a victory in Hollywood Park's Grade II Bel Air Handicap in his second start back from a four-month layoff. Percutant will be trying the dirt for the first time and Lord Jain is winless in four races since coming to the U.S. from Argentina. Kent Desormeaux will ride River Keen, Alex Solis will be aboard Crafty Friend, Corey Nakatani will be on Percutant and Rene Douglas rides Lord Jain.

Gentlemen, a massive, athletic 5-year-old Argentine bred horse, has recorded seven wins in nine starts since coming to Richard Mandella's barn from his homeland. He won his first American race, in his second start, at Del Mar last year. That triggered a five-race winning streak, before he finished third in the Santa Anita Handicap. He bounded right back, however, to capture the Pimlico Special at the Baltimore racetrack and the Hollywood Gold Cup in his most recent start. This year's Hall of Fame inductee, Gary Stevens, rides for the seventh straight time.

Siphon, also trained by Mandella, has finished second in his most recent two races -- the Gold and the Dubai World Cup -- following a solid victory in the Santa Anita Handicap. The front-running 6-year-old, bred in Brazil, will be ridden for the first time by Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron. McCarron picked up the mount after Siphon's regular rider, David Flores, was injured in a spill earlier in the Del Mar meet.

A tally for either Gentlemen or Siphon will give Mandella victory in an unprecedented five straight million-dollar races, going back to last year's Gold Cup victory by Siphon, and including the exciting win by Dare And Go in last year's Pacific Classic.

The first race on Pacific Classic Day will go to the post at the usual 12:30 p.m. Gates will open at 10:30 a.m. Early Bird wagering still will be held from 8 to 10 a.m. The Pacific Classic will be run as the fifth race, and is scheduled to go off at 2:46 p.m. It will be televised live nationally by ESPN.

SEVEN DEL MAR DERBY PROSPECTS SET FOR SUNDAY'S LA JOLLA 'CAP

Led by Fantastic Fellow, winner of one division of the Oceanside Stakes on Del Mar's opening day, and Worldly Ways, who finished second in the Grade II American Derby at Arlington International Race Course July 20, a field of seven is slated to go postward Sunday in the 57th La Jolla Handicap for 3-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course.

If seven start in the Grade III prep for the Grade II, $300,000 Del Mar Derby, to be run on Labor Day, September 1, it will have a gross purse of $135,450, with $85,450 going to the winner.

Worldly Ways will pack high weight of 119, including Corey Nakatani, and Fantastic Fellow will carry 118, including Alex Solis. Expected to get some attention, also, is Falkenham, who chased Fantastic Fellow home in the Oceanside; Without Doubt, an Irish bred who has one win in five starts since coming to the U.S.; and Rarecard, who has won three of his last four races.

King of Swing and Steel Ruhlr complete the field.

FOR FIFTH TIME IN 14 DAYS, ONE TICKET SCORES IN DEL MAR PICK SIX

For the first time since the Pick Six came into being in the 1980 Del Mar season, there have been five single-ticket winners in the first 14 days of racing in the 43-day Thoroughbred meet at the seaside course. The fifth single-ticket winner cashed in on Thursday, the 14th day of the season, when the payoff was $110,637.20

The first of the single-ticket payoffs came on the season's second day, July 24. The payoff was $364,816.80. On July 30, the payoff on one ticket was $121,855 and on August 2 it paid $478,141.60, the sixth highest such payoff. A $120,274.80 one-ticket win came this past Wednesday.

The largest number of one-ticket winners in any previous meet's first 14 days was four, accomplished in 1991 and 1980. The Del Mar record for a single-ticket payoff is $1,039,259.20 on September 7, 1995.

POPULAR TRAINER MEL STUTE CELEBRATES 70TH BIRTHDAY AT THE BARN

In a family setting at his barn on Del Mar's backstretch, trainer Mel Stute was surprised with a 70th birthday celebration this morning. With his family of wife, Annabelle, daughters Jana and Gail and son Gary and their families, including five grandchildren, Stute was feted with sweets and coffee and good wishes from family and fellow horsemen, including Del Mar president and general manager Joseph Harper.

Stute, born August 8, 1927 in Fort Wayne, IN, received his trainer's license in 1947 and has been a regular at Del Mar for many years. He is tied with Jerry Fanning for sixth place on the track's list of all-time stakes-winning trainers with 23 victories. The affable Stute has had two Eclipse champions -- top 3-year-old Snow Chief and best 2-year-old filly Brave Raj, both in 1986 -- and scored a big upset in the 1987 Breeders' Cup Sprint with his filly Very Subtle.

Snow Chief sticks out as probably Stute's greatest horse, chalking up wins in the Florida, Santa Anita and Jersey Derbys as well as the Preakness Stakes during his championship year. He was California's all-time leading money-winning state bred with $3,383,210 before being passed by Best Pal, who logged earnings of $5,668,245.

Aside from his champions and Very Subtle, Stute's top stakes winners include First Balcony, Commissary, Telly's Pop, Stancharry, Right Con, Gum, Kool Arrival, College Town, Klassy Kim, Score Quick, who is expected to run in the Pat O'Brien Handicap on August 16, and Real Connection, who finished a fast-closing second in last Saturday's Ramona Handicap at Del Mar.

Among his stakes victories "where the turf meets the surf" are Del Mar Oaks, Del Mar Futurity, Del Mar Debutante, Osunitas, Oceanside, Rancho Bernardo and Graduation. Since 1983, Stute has won at least one stakes race in every meet except in 1990 and '95.

PAT O'BRIEN, DEL MAR OAKS SHAPING UP SHARPLY WITH SOLID FIELDS

At least seven and as many as 11 sprinters seem to be heading toward action in next Saturday's 12th edition of the Grade III, $100,000-added Pat O'Brien Handicap at seven furlongs on Del Mar's main track.

Handicap on July 27 is the Lima Family Trust's First Intent, trained by Jack Carava. The Crosby runner-up, Budget Stable's Boundless Moment, also figures to be back for trainer Kathy Walsh. Mike Pegram's High Stakes Player, Robert B. Moreno's Ready to Order, Bill M. Thomas' Score Quick, Jack L. Finley's Red and Ernest Auerbach's Tres Paraiso also figure to go to the post.

Sahadi's Elmhurst, Cohen and Red Baron's Barn's New Century and Anderson and Waranch's Northern Afleet.

The Grade I, $250,000 Del Mar Oaks, to be run Sunday, August 17, could easily have a full field of 10 for the 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-old fillies on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course. The winner and runner-up -- Let It Ride Stable's Famous Digger and Dogwood Plantation's Cozy Blues -- from the Grade II San Clemente Handicap on July 26 are solid for the Oaks. Expected to join them in the gate are Sidney Craig's Golden Arches, bought last week in Europe and expected to arrive in the United States next Wednesday; Rosee and Sullivan's Lets Get Cozzy; G. Arthur Seelbinder's Sagasious; Kenis & 3 +U Stable's See You Soon; and Ackerley Bros. Farm's Swearingen. Sagasious will ship in from Monmouth Park in New Jersey where she won the Grade II Reeve Schley Stakes, and Swearingen will be coming from Chicago where she ran second in Arlington International Race Course's Pucker Up Stakes July 6.

TODAY'S SIMULCAST STAKES - Saratoga: A Phenomenon II).