3/7/11
Last updated: 3/6/11 5:15 PM
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Setsuko (outside) suffered a
cut on his leg during the Big ‘Cap
(Benoit Photos) |
Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella reported that injury has been added to
what he considers insult, as Santa Anita H. (G1) runner-up SETSUKO (Pleasantly
Perfect) has sustained an injured left front leg, which resulted from contact
with favored Twirling Candy (Candy Ride [Arg]) during the controversial stretch
run of Saturday’s main event.
“He came out of the race with a cut on his left front leg,” Mandella said.
“He’s got a lot of swelling in the leg and we’re treating it, hoping that it
isn’t going to become more serious. There’s no question he got cut by Twirling
Candy.”
Setsuko, Twirling Candy and the winner, GAME ON DUDE (Awesome Again), were
involved in repeated contact approaching the eighth-pole, resulting in a
12-minute inquiry, after which it was announced that the stewards had made no
change to the original order of finish.
“I said yesterday that I had no comment and I don’t want to drag the game
down by saying anything now about the decision the stewards made” Mandella said.
“I think they should talk to the jockeys, but I think it was chicken (stuff)
that (winning trainer Bob) Baffert was trying to talk to the other jockeys and
to the stewards.
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“I was trying to be a gentleman and unless the trainer is claiming foul, I
just don’t think it’s right that he is trying to talk to the jocks and to the
stewards.”
Mandella is a three-time winner of the Big ‘Cap, winning it in 1997 with
Siphon (Brz), in ’98 with Malek (Chi) and in 2005 with Rock Hard Ten.
The four-year-old Setsuko was seeking his first stakes win, and only his
second career victory, in the race but barely missed by a nose on the wire. He’s
now run second in the Big ‘Cap, Santa Anita Derby (G1) and Sham S. (G3) during
his career, which stands at 12-1-5-2, $396,686.
