By T. D. Thornton
A generation ago, the Philip H. Iselin S. used to be the premier race of the summer at Monmouth Park. Even while cycling through several name changes, the then-handicap carried Grade I status between 1976 and 1996 and a purse that swelled to $500,000 for a few years. Its importance as an August fixture for top older routers merited regular broadcasts on national TV, and the race's roster of winners boasted such standouts as Spectacular Bid, Alysheba and Skip Away.
In decline ever since, the Iselin had already levelled out to its current Grade III ranking by the time Ghostzapper won it in 2004, parlaying a win at the New Jersey shore into a blockbuster second half of the season capped by a win in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic and dual Horse of the Year and Champion Older Horse Eclipse Award honors.
The Iselin hasn't produced any top-ranked winners in the two decades since. But that script might have shifted on Saturday when Subsanador (Arg) (Fortify) unleashed a powerful far-turn move to mow down the pacemakers and score by 1 1/2 lengths under jockey Mike Smith for trainer Richard Mandella and owner Wathnan Racing.
While Ghostzapper was a proven sprinter who used the 2004 Iselin as a springboard to show he could excel at two-turn races, Subsanador's win in the same stakes 20 summers later served as more of a confidence-builder to earn his first United States victory while prepping him for tougher competition that could eventually include the Breeders' Cup Classic.
The 5-year-old's Argentinian form is already well-established, with seven dirt wins, including three at the Group 1 level. Subsanador was favored in 10 of his 12 starts in his home country, and his only two off-the-board finishes there were turf tries.
Subsanador's debut in America on Dec. 26, 2023, was a disappointing fourth as the 13-10 favorite in the GII San Antonio S. at Santa Anita. But in his next outing, the Mar. 3 GI Santa Anita H., Subsanador nearly stole the 10-furlong race on the front end at 22-1 odds before grudgingly yielding to Newgate (Into Mischief) in the final strides.
Subsanador was privately sold after the Big 'Cap, and in the process got transferred from trainer John Sadler to Mandella. In his first race for Mandella, he reverted to fourth in the 1 1/4-mile GII Hollywood Gold Cup S.
Mandella had been pointing Subsanador for the Aug. 31 GI Pacific Classic at Del Mar, but he called an audible earlier this week and shipped to Monmouth instead. Mandella doesn't often send horses from Southern California to New Jersey, but when he does, look out: He captured the 2023 GI Haskell S. with Geaux Rocket Ride at 12-1 odds the last time he made that journey, with Smith also along for the ride. (In the last five years, Mandella has started only one other entrant at Monmouth).
Mike Smith (pictured) and trainer Richard Mandella took the Jersey Shore by storm | Bill Denver/EQUI-PHOTO
Mandella indicated post-win that the Sept. 28 GI California Crown S. at Santa Anita could be next.
Right around the same late-1990s time frame when Iselin still had star power, Mandella was enjoying his own streak of good fortune with an impressive run of South American imports who ascended to Grade I success under his care in America, with Gentlemen (Arg), Sandpit (Brz), Siphon (Brz) and Puerto Madero (Chi) leading the way.
As they say, wait long enough and everything that was once in vogue will cycle back into fashion again. Perhaps Subsanador will prove that old adage to be true by rekindling the significance of the Iselin while also reasserting Mandella's prowess with South American imports.
'Resolve and Reinvention'
If you have time to read only one long-form racing feature today, make sure it's Mike McIntyre's outstanding story published last Friday in the Winnipeg Free Press (link here) about former Assiniboia Downs jockey Alyssa Selman, who was paralyzed in a 2015 racing accident but recently found the fortitude to get back up on horses thanks to a village of supporters and a specially designed saddle to assist people with disabilities.
Selman, now 38, resonates as a profile in courage for how she has dealt with numerous challenges over the past decade that are not limited to the loss of the use of her legs.
Amazingly, Selman has started to compete in recreational barrel racing, and she is even encouraging her 13-year-old daughter's dream of one day riding horses for a living.
As Selman's sister explains in the article, “She doesn't feel sorry for herself. She doesn't feel limited. It's never 'Are we going to do it?' but 'How are we going to do it?' I think the things [other people] see her do make them want to work harder. The way that she overcomes everything, it makes them think there isn't a 'We can't,' because she's doing it.”
It's the type of read that will make you rethink and reorder your own priorities.
And the last shall be…first?
As first reported by Ray Paulick of The Paulick Report on Aug. 13, the sixth race at FanDuel (AKA Fairmount Park) last Tuesday featured:
1) A double claim of foul by two separate riders that resulted in a double-disqualification in a four-horse field.
2) A miscalculation of the order of finish by the stewards that briefly resulted in the horse who finished last, beaten 19 lengths, being mistakenly declared the winner for a short time.
3) The re-posting of a corrected order of finish that had the third- and fourth-place horses across the line listed as the one-two official finishers.
4) A judgment that directed the track to pay out on both the stewards' mistakenly posted order of finish and the corrected version.
5) A timing malfunction that necessitated the re-timing of a portion of the race by hand.
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