The day Mandurah ran one for the books

No horse has ever run a faster mile on grass than Oscar Performance. This detail alone makes him serious contender in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile on Saturday.

Of course, as we know from sitting at the knee of Andrew Beyer, raw times are meaningless without context, which is why No Jet Lag can receive a 105 Beyer Figure for winning the 2013 City of Hope Mile at Santa Anita in 1:31.84, while Oscar Performance was awarded a 104 for his 1:31.23 in the Poker at Belmont this past June.

Even so, the musty old record books will carry Oscar Performance on top for now. But he is not alone. His Poker clocking merely equaled the one-mile turf record set on June 6, 2010, at Monmouth Park by a 6-year-old gelding named Mandurah.

Mandurah was as unlikely a major record holder as ever came along. The race in which he scorched his mile was a starter handicap for horses who had run for a $12,500 claiming tag or less. To that point he had won 5 of 20 modest starts, none of them on grass.

And yet, from the moment of conception at Gainsborough Farm, Mandurah was designed to be a good horse. His sire was A.P. Indy. Enough said. Mandurah (named for the western Australian city) was the first foal of the stakes-winning Machiavellian mare Morning Pride.

At the outset of his career, Mandurah carried the colors of Darley for trainer Eoin Harty. After two wins in seven starts, he was sold privately in the spring of 2008 to trainer Grant Forster and a partnership that included Dr. Kip Colvin, an ear, nose and throat specialist from Memphis.

“He was known as the meanest horse in the barn,” Forster recalled. “We were buying him to geld him, which we did right away. In fact, when our vet went to anesthetize him he bit me so hard I had a bruise on my arm for two weeks.”

Mandurah was beginning to come around for his new people when he suffered a condylar fracture. That took him out of action for most of 2009, while his full sister Flashing upheld the family name by winning the Test and the Gazelle for Kiaran McLaughlin.

“He came back working as brilliant as ever but running terrible, no heart,” Forster continued. “We finally dropped him in for $7,500 and he still ran bad, so as a last resort I wheeled him back in six days, something I never do. He drew off and won by eight.”

What figured to be Mandurah’s finest hour came at the close of the 2010 Oaklawn Park meet when he won the Trail’s End, a starter allowance that traditionally caps the season.

“That’s a real fans’ favorite,” Forster said. “People were spilling out of the grandstand. I think we counted about 80 in the winner’s circle picture.”

The Forster stable summered at Monmouth that year, where purses had been goosed by casino money, and a starter handicap series offered $50,000 a race. In the June 6 kickoff event, Mandurah was 10-1 in a field of 11. Alex Solis, in from New York for the day, snagged the ride. They went to the lead at the start and, as they say, improved their position.

“I knew we were going fast,” Solis said. “It was a narrow course that day, and what I remember most about him is the way he took the turns. He felt like he was running on rails.”

Forster, up in the stands that day, glanced at the half-mile split and winced.

“I was cursing at the 44 and three,” Forster said. “But I thought that at least it would set him up for the next one.”

Instead, Mandurah won by 8 1/2 lengths. As Mandurah returned to the winner’s circle, track announcer Larry Collmus clued in the crowd.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Collmus began, “if the final time is correct – 1:31 and one – that’s a new world record for one mile. We’ll need to verify that. But if it is indeed correct, that is a new world record.”

It was verified, and Mandurah’s name went into the books, eclipsing the mile mark of 1:31.41 set by Mr. Light at Gulfstream Park in early 2005.

“I was definitely skeptical,” Collmus said. “Although it was one of those times of year we didn’t get a lot of rain, so the course was very speedy. You’re not surprised when a horse like Oscar Performance runs that fast.”

Collmus, now with NYRA, also called the record-equaling Poker of Oscar Performance. Forster admired that race from afar, though not without a touch of anxiety.

“We were excited he just tied it,” Forster said. “We won a stakes on the underdcard at Arlington last summer when Oscar Performance won the Secretariat, so we know what a nice horse he is.”

Following his record, Mandurah disappeared from public view. A few days after the race he injured a hock in a stall accident. He recovered, trained, then damaged a tendon. He finally made a comeback in April of 2012 and lasted until June, when he won an allowance race on the grass at Churchill Downs and reinjured the tendon. That was that.

“He’s been on a farm not far from where his owner lives,” Forster said. “We joke about him being just like Elvis: He lived fast and ended up retiring to Memphis.”