By ED GOLDEN

With apologies to Eugene O�Neill, it was a long Day�s journey into naught.

Pat Day traveled 3,000 miles to ride Gentlemen in what had been anticipated as a race for the ages, a showdown with Kentucky Derby winner Silver Charm in last Saturday�s $1 million Santa Anita Handicap. But when Silver Charm was scratched just 30 hours before the race with a bruise to his right foot following a morning gallop, the best-laid plans of Santa Anita began to unravel like a cheap suit.

Fast-forward 24 hours. Saturday, and a glorious, late-winter day at the scenic Arcadia track twists from so real to surreal. As expected, trainer Richard Mandella sends out the winner of the Santa Anita Handicap. But it�s not Gentlemen, who goes off as the shortest-priced favorite in track history at five cents on the dollar. In one of racing�s greatest upsets, it�s Malek, who joins recent non-immortal Big �Cap winners Mr Purple, Urgent Request, Stuka, and Sir Beaufort.

Silver Charm versus Gentlemen would have been like Ali-Frazier. Instead, what we got was Ali and Chuck Wepner. And Wepner won.

For Mandella, who watched Gentlemen stop his engines and struggle home fourth and last, beaten eight lengths, it was a case of mixed emotions, something akin to watching your mother-in-law drive off a cliff in your new Mercedes.

For Hall of Fame rider Day, it was a case of trying to find answers. "The only sure thing about this game is that there isn�t a sure thing," Day said of his first ride on Gentlemen. "He felt good. He warmed up great, went to the gate good, felt good . . . but he never put his ears up and looked happy . . . leaving the 3/8 pole, I felt I was in serious trouble. He was laboring. He just wasn�t responding. What can I say?"

Well, after Silver Charm�s defection, everyone said all the right things.

"I feel bad for Santa Anita and all the fans," said Silver Charm�s trainer, Bob Baffert, late Friday morning, shortly after the dappled steel-gray colt suffered the minor injury. "It�s a bruised heel on the inside quarter of his right front foot. It�s something that�s been brewing for a few days, but if I had a few more days, I could run him. I would give him a little bute (an anti-inflammatory medication) and he�d be all right, but I can�t do that with a horse this valuable."

Baffert said the culprit could have been El Nino, which inundated the track with 25 inches of rain this meet.

"That�s when horses� feet get a bit soft, when they get to pounding on all the wet sand that�s added to the track because of the rain. It�s hard on a horse. He could make the race next week, and maybe I could have run him this week, but I didn�t feel right about it. I have no idea when he�ll be back to the races. (First) I have to take care of those feet."

Despite the 11th-hour defection that steam-rollered great expectations, Santa Anita president Cliff Goodrich kept a stiff upper lip.

"I got a call early Friday morning from both Toms (director of racing Robbins and racing secretary Knust)," Goodrich said, "and they asked me to come to their office. While I was walking there, I said to myself, �Which horse is it? Silver Charm or Gentlemen?� I knew one was out of the race.

"I�ve been around this game long enough to know if you have Michael Jordan coming to town, and unless he gets hit by a truck, you�re going to see him. In racing, you have to take it one day at a time. I�ve held my breath. We lost Holy Bull in 1995; we lost Cigar in 1996, and now this. I�m not going to say it was expected, but these things happen and there�s nothing you can do about them . . . obviously, to say we�re not disappointed would not be playing very good poker. It�s a big setback, but in this game you learn to deal with it and move forward."

Still, to come so close to one of those rare events, a natural, a race that promoted itself, that promised to live up to its hype, a sure winner, and then lose it in the shadow of the wire, inflicts a lingering hurt.

Bet on this: when the world of racing heard this news, it uttered a loud and collective, "Ouch!"

CORINTHIAN -- Looked good on the hoof but soft pace cost late-running Irish-bred. Tab on turf at mile or longer.

PLEASUREDANCER -- Overcame three-length loss at start to win clear in first U.S. race. Should continue winning ways on turf for trainer Bob Hess Jr., who claimed gelding for $40,000.

TENBYSSIMO -- Irish-bred from sizzling Drysdale barn got rolling too late in U.S. debut in downhill grass sprint, but should have a bright future.

THE HOMESTRETCH: "Gentlemen bled a significant amount (through Lasix) after the race," said Gary Mandella, speaking for his father, who was in Louisiana Sunday to saddle Refinado Tom in New Orleans Handicap. "Over the next couple days we�ll do some blood work, X-ray his lungs to see what kind of bleeding we�re dealing with. But his legs are ice cold and he�s real sound, so it�s not that kind of a problem. If there was an excuse like that, we would have seen it already, unless it�s something undetected, like a blind quarter crack. It looks to me like something internal." For the second year in a row, Mandella saddled both the winner and the beaten favorite in the Big �Cap. Siphon, at 5-1, won last year, with Sandpit second and favored Gentlemen third. Except for the Breeders� Cup, it was the sixth straight $1 million victory for Million Dollar Mandella: the Hollywood Gold Cup (Siphon) and the Pacific Classic (Dare and Go) in 1996; and the Big �Cap (Siphon), the Gold Cup (Gentlemen) and the Pacific Classic (Gentlemen) in 1997 . . . Super agent Scott McClellan, on how Alex Solis wound up on Malek, since Solis regularly rides for Paco Gonzalez, who saddled runner-up Bagshot: "I could have ridden for Paco, but he didn�t decide to go until maybe a week or 10 days before the race and I had already committed to Malek." . . . Malek�s next race will be the $4-million Dubai World Cup on March 28, but Gentlemen will stay at home. Solis rides Malek in Dubai . . . Linemaker Jeff Tufts made Gentlemen the 1-9 program choice. The only other time he made a horse 1-9 was Althea in the 1983 Anoakia Stakes. She finished second to Percipient . . . Happiest losing jockey was Kent Desormeaux, who beat Gentlemen by a neck for third-place on 24-1 shot Don�t Blame Rio. "I feel like I won the race. If someone had told me I was going to beat Gentlemen in a photo, I would have said they were dreaming." . . . Gary Stevens, who elected to ride Silver Charm and wound up watching the race on TV, said: "I�m as shocked as anyone . . . totally shocked . . . There have just been some unbelievable circumstances the last couple of days. I�ve never seen a turn of events like this. It�s simply mind-boggling." Tell us about it.