Top 5 greatest training achievements in BC history
 

#5 - Michael the cross dressing genius Dickinson wins the '98 BC Mile with Da Hoss. He had just one prep race in two years.

#4 - Rick Dutrow Jr. wins two Breeders Cup races the same year with the likes of Saint Liam and Silver Train. Two horses who were complete and utter bums before Dutrow made them run well.

#3 - Richard Mandella wins 4 Breeders Cup Races the same day in 2003. Including a win by the immortal Action This Day.

#2 - Andre Fabre starts his first ever BC Classic horse in the '92 Classic ... a 3yo filly named Jolypha. Never having tried dirt before - and making only her 6th lifetime start - Jolypha probably would have been 100/1 or more if she wasn't coupled in the betting with a pair of Bobby Frankel trained Grade 1 winners.

Jolypha ran 3rd to AP Indy and was always in the hunt. The following year, Fabre returned with Arcangues. He wasn't coupled with the Frankel horses - and this time his horse won and paid $269.20.

Interestingly ... Dick Mandella took over the training of Arcangues after his BC Classic win. He did no better with him than Frankel would do with Jolypha.





#1. Richard Mandella would saddle Phone Chatter for the BC Juvie Fillies in 1993.

All hope appeared gone when Indian Charlie showed up at the windows and bet $50 on her.

But somehow it wasn't enough to stop Phone Chatter.

IC celebrated with his winnings by buying a case of The Natty and catching a Gators home game with GPK.

Jealousy is unbecoming of you Doug. Don't hate just because I look good in cut off jorts...

Who is the one with Down syndrome?

No wonder John Smoltz can't throw worth a crap anymore if this is what he's doing all the time.

Speaking of Gator fans in tight jorts...where has Cajun been lately?

My choice would be Bob Baffert getting the much injured Midnight Lute to win the BC Sprint in 1:07:08 in his 2nd start of the year off of a 10th place finish in the Pat O'Brien.

Just outside the top 5 IMO would be Frankel squeezing a 3rd out of Badge of Silver in the Mile off like a 9 month layoff.

I think William Livingston deserves a mention.

Dickinson in 1996 with Da Hoss. He had one route to get to the BC; the Preston brothers' advisor had another, richer route. Dickinson's plan won out. There would have been major egg on his face if Da Hoss had flopped at WO.

Funny Frankel was 0-42 in BC before S Squirt won the sprint, he was an abysmal failure up until that point. I don't think I will ever forgive him for not having Milwaukee Brew healthy to run in the BC Classic in the 2003, I was waiting to bet him in that race and the way it would have unfolded with his affinity for Santa Anita, he more than likely would have had a great chance at winning at overlaid odds.

I would also include Dallas Stewart overcoming his own inability as a trainer to get a win for Unbridled Elaine in 2001.

Miesque's Approval
 

2006 turf-Marty Wolfson takes horse who recently ran in claiming and was about to be retired to win the turf, has to be considered

Had to be the shoes.

Strictly a good worming.

Mandella actually won 4 races on the 1993 card. Phone Chatter and Kotashaan in BC, Memo in the Smile, and Region in the Sunday Silence.

Also in 1993, Gilded Time came off a full year layoff, his last start being a win in the Juvenile at GP, and ran a sharp 3rd in the Sprint.

I think the best of all has been overlooked. Neil Drysdale getting Prized to win the 89 Turf as a 3yo in his first career turf start was pretty darn impressive.

he was wearing tan loafers that day!

I thought it was a thorough tooth brushing

One rather major training accomplishment that often gets forgotten is Neil Drysdale's feat of getting Prized to win the Breeders Cup Turf in his first ever start on the grass........and as a three-year-old to boot!

Pretty stunning stuff!

echo in here (see above)

Yep.....sorry about that! Missed the post! :o

spanked e channel..lol gpk in 5/4/3/2..

:rolleyes:

lol on the gpk in 5/4/3/2

except it was the mile, not the turf- EC finished 3rd that year in it. :D

Andre Fabre was 2nd with the 3yo filly Sierra Roberta at 25/1 odds in that race. Andre Fabre was 3rd with 52/1 shot Star Lift.

8/1 shot Prized was bred great for the turf ... and had he not been scared away from the Classic by Easy Goer and Sunday Silence ... Andre Fabre would have ended up with a 25/1 over 52/1 cold exacta in that race.

What Andre Fabre did in the Classic back-to-back with Jolypha and Arcangues is really beyond belief.

3rd with a 3yo filly who might have gone off at 150/1 odds or more if not coupled with a pair of solid older Grade 1 winners. And he takes down the Classic the following year at 133/1 odds. Both horses stayed in America for great trainers like Frankel and Dick Mandella afterwards ... and neither one amounted to much on either surface.

3-year-olds made up 4 of the top 5 spots in that race.

The only older horse that finished in the top 5 that race was the 52/1 of Fabre's that ran 3rd.

By the way ... If Indian Charlie would have bet on Prized .. he would have jumped the fence and went for a swim in the infield or something like that.

the photographer?

Yeah ... you honestly can't do a true top 5 on something like this because you don't know what's going on with the horse day to day.

A horse like a Badge of Silver or Midnight Lute or Gilded Time or Da Hoss all had extreme talent ... it's hard to judge how great of a training job those all were unless you saw what was going on day to day and really knew what you're seeing.

Jorts...a Gator fan tradition.

All of which has absolutely nothing to do with Neil Drysdale. Weak field or not, to win that race first time on turf is pretty freaking impressive, especially considering the horse had been running very well on dirt. Clearly, you don't just throw a horse out in the country's top mile and a half turf race and win it without doing some masterful work in the mornings.

War Chant was 2nd time turf when he won the Mile for Drysdale as a 3yo.

But again, the horse was regally bred for turf. I'm also pretty sure War Chant was a post time favorite. No doubt both were fine training performances ... but they don't have the "WTF" factor that Fabre had with the first two he ran in the Classic.

I think Prized was a much better turf horse than dirt horse after his BC win as well... but that's more in a time period that's in IC's and Rollo Tomasi's wheelhouse and not mine.

Not all horses with extreme talent win BC races they are supposed to, talent is immaterial to me because let's face it you can't train a Clysdale to win a BC race no matter how many training titles you have won, you have to have talent to win. Getting them to perform at the big dance and timing it to perfection especially with horses that have experienced setbacks or some sort of adversity is good training and at times this can even be called a 'great training feat'.

Dutrow won two on the same day with Silver Train and Saint Liam ... two horses who royally sucked before he got them.

Wolfson won the Mile in blowout fashion with a horse who was out of the money in a claiming race less than a year prior.

Again ... it's kind of a silly thread. There is no way anyone can say with exactatude what the greatest ones are unless they were around all of the past BC winners for months leading into the race and really knew what they're seeing in the morning. I just picked the ones that made me say "holy sh!t!" and "WTF!" ... Midnite Lute winning the way he did didn't surprise me in the least. But I'm sure it was an excellent training job.

Dutrow and Wolfson are in a special category all of their own, yeah I get what you were trying to say.

I had the trifecta dude.

Wait a minute .... I thought you were the unluckiest bettor of all-time?

You'll have to explain to me how that one wasn't DrugSian type luck.

Easy enough.

I had my lucky sock with me and was on 'my' Ritalin that day!

In both cases, the horses were away from the track for 6 months. Maybe they forgot how to run.

--Dunbar