Richard Mandella Impressed With Omaha Beach’s Preparation

Trainer Richard Mandella will be going into the 145th Kentucky Derby with Omaha Beach, the 2019 betting favorite to win the race. On Sunday, after a brief training session with his three-year-old colt, Mandella told reporters that he is impressed by what he has seen from the horse. The predictions clearly point to Omaha Beach.

Mandella said he had been nervous about Omaha Beach’s training the previous night. Also, had a hard time falling asleep. Now that he has seen his horse practice on the ground. He says a lot of his anxiety is gone.

“To be honest, I didn’t sleep too well last night.” Mandella said.
“Anytime you have an important work like we did yesterday, you’ve got to be concerned for the next morning. And how they come out of it. But he’s fine; good as gold. It sure has me feeling better.”

Even though winning the Kentucky Derby is his top priority. Mandella and his wife, Randi, took some time off to relax on Sunday and visited one of his favorite horses, Beholder, at a nearby farm.

Omaha Beach Betting Favorite

Beholder is a champion mare who Mandella trained through four Eclipse Award seasons in 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2016. During her racing career, Beholder took home $6,156,000 in prize money. Now, Mandella is hoping she can breed a champion colt that will win the Kentucky Derby in the future.

Now that he has gone through an Impressive training session, Mandella will likely take it easy on Omaha Beach on Monday to make sure he gets enough rest and doesn’t pick up an injury that could prevent him from participating in the Kentucky Derby.

If Omaha Beach pulls off the victory on Saturday, he will be the first Richard Mandella-trained horse to win the Kentucky Derby. Even though he doesn’t have a Kentucky Derby win, Mandella has had a lot of success as a trainer, particularly in the Breeders’ Cup, which is why he is in the Hall of Fame.