Richard Eugene Mandella is a Thoroughbred

Thoroughbred

The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...

 horse trainer

Horse trainer

In horse racing, a trainer prepares a horse for races, with responsibility for exercising it, getting it race-ready and determining which races it should enter...

 and a member of the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame

National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame

The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was founded in 1950 in Saratoga Springs, New York, to honor the achievements of American thoroughbred race horses, jockeys, and trainers...

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Mandella's father, a blacksmith

Blacksmith

A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...

, introduced him to horses at an early age and while still in high school he began starting and training horses at a nearby ranch. He spent a year in New York as assistant to Lefty Nickerson

Victor J. Nickerson

Victor J. "Lefty" Nickerson was an American Thoroughbred horse racing trainer. He embarked on a career as a professional trainer in 1953, working primarily at racetracks in the Northeastern United States...

 and then took a job with Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 horseman Roger Braugh in 1974.

Two years later, Richard Mandella returned to California and opened his own stable. His wins began almost immediately with Bad 'n Big and continued with Phone Trick, Dare and Go, and Pleasantly Perfect

Pleasantly Perfect

Pleasantly Perfect is a Thoroughbred racehorse who retired as the fourth richest American horse in career earnings. A son of Pleasant Colony, winner of the 1981 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, he was out of the mare Regal State who won the 1985 Group One Prix Morny in France. His damsire was...

. Between 1996 and 1998 Mandella won six straight million dollar races in Southern California with Dare and Go, Siphon, Gentlemen

Gentlemen (horse)

Gentlemen is a Thoroughbred racehorse who was the Champion Three-Year-Old Colt in Argentina and then raced successfully in the United States....

 and Malek

Malek (horse)

Malek is a racehorse, bred by Haras Mocito Guapo.Winnings: 23 Starts: 10 - 7 - 2, $2,382,623-Record:1996:*1st Gran Criterium-G1, Tanteo de Potrillos-G1, Premio Domingo S. Herrera Martinez_G2, Premio Victor Matetic Fernandez-G3, Premio Guillermo del Pedregal H.*2nd St...

. Mandella has seen six of his horses run in the Kentucky Derby

Kentucky Derby

The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses, held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is one and a quarter mile at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry...

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Mandella was inducted in the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame in 2001 and in 2003 he had four winners in the Breeders' Cup

Breeders' Cup

The Breeders' Cup World Championships is an annual series of Thoroughbred horse races, most but not all Grade I, operated by Breeders' Cup Limited, a company formed in 1982. From its inception in 1984 through 2006, it was a single-day event; starting in 2007, it expanded to two days. The location...

: Pleasantly Perfect, Johar

Johar

Johar is an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 2003 Breeders' Cup Turf in a dead-heat with High Chaparral....

, Halfbridled

Halfbridled

Halfbridled is a dark bay or brown Thoroughbred filly bred by Wertheimer et Frere of France.Following a victorious debut in a Maiden Special Weight race at Del Mar Racetrack, Halfbridled contested the Grade I Del Mar Debutante Stakes where she defeated five opponents including Hollywood Story and...

, and Action This Day

Action This Day (horse)

Action This Day is a retired American Thoroughbred racehorse.In 2003, he won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and was voted the U.S. Eclipse Award for Outstanding 2-Year-Old Male Horse....

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In 2006 Mandella wrote the introduction

Introduction (essay)

An introduction is a beginning section which states the purpose and goals of the following writing. The introduction is usually interesting and it intrigues the reader and causes him or her to want to read on. The sentence in which the introduction begins can be a question or just a statement...

 to Santa Anita

Santa Anita

Santa Anita may refer to:*Metro Santa Anita, a station on the Mexico City Metro*Rancho Santa Anita, a 13,319-acre land grant given to Hugo Reid*Santa Anita, Baja California Sur, a village in Baja California del Sur, Mexico...

 Morning Rhapsody, by photographer-author Karen S. Davis

Karen S. Davis

Karen Susan Davis is an American photographer, author, editor, singer-songwriter, and actor. She is best known for Santa Anita Morning Rhapsody, the first coffee table book to document morning thoroughbred horse training at a racetrack.-Photographer and Author:Karen S...

, the first full-color art book documenting morning thoroughbred racetrack training. "Most people who enjoy racing don't realize how special these early hours are, watching ... the relationship between horse and man," he wrote.

Richard Mandella lives in Bradbury, California

Bradbury, California

Bradbury is a small, affluent city in the San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is located in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains below Angeles National Forest. Bradbury is bordered by the city of Monrovia to the west, and Duarte to the south and...

with his wife Randi, son Gary (also a trainer) and daughter Andrea.