Ready, Willing and Stable

Richard Mulhall’s phone rang at 3 a.m. His 21-year-old daughter Kristin, who trains horses at Hollywood Park, was on the line.

“Want to go to the track with me?” she asked.

Mulhall, a former trainer, chuckled as he told the story.

“I reminded her that it was 3 o’clock in the morning, and I’m no longer doing what trainers do. I told her that I now do what most people do at 3 a.m. Sleep. But I was on to what she was up to. If I go with her, we get to use the diamond [carpool] lane. Then when the work’s over, she gets back to Monrovia a lot faster.”

Richard Mulhall, who successfully managed the late Prince Ahmed bin Salman’s racing stable during a run that included Preakness and Belmont Stakes victories with Point Given in 2001, and Kentucky Derby and Preakness wins with War Emblem in 2002, didn’t want his daughter to follow him into the training ranks.

“She was doing fabulously with show horses,” Mulhall said. “She was doing well enough that I think she was on her way to making the Olympic [equestrian] team. And she was making real good money, more money than she’s making even now, training horses. I tried to tell her that there was no money in training horses anymore. The expenses, especially in California with the workers’ comp situation, are just too great. I wished for a long time that she wouldn’t do it.”

But the day after War Emblem’s eighth-place finish in the Belmont Stakes, a defeat that cost him the Triple Crown and a $5-million bonus, Kristin Mulhall came home with her father from New York, drove over to Hollywood Park and passed her state trainer’s test. About six weeks short of her 20th birthday, she was ready to go into a business that her father had told her to avoid.

“She was nervous as hell, going for that test,” Richard Mulhall said. “Especially the verbal part, where the stewards ask you a bunch of questions. But she passed it with flying colors, and now look where she is. I’m very proud and happy for her.”

The younger Mulhall has a stable of 42 horses, one of whom is Imperialism, a colt she scouted and bought in January for Steve Taub, a Santa Monica automobile dealer who’s her principal client. At 7-2, Imperialism is one of the favorites among seven horses in Saturday’s $750,000 Santa Anita Derby, a race that might send Mulhall on to the Kentucky Derby, which never has been won by a female trainer. Jenine Sahadi became the first woman to win the Santa Anita Derby when she saddled The Deputy in 2000.

“I’m not feeling any pressure yet,” Mulhall said earlier this week. “Maybe by [Saturday], I will be feeling some.”

While her father was calling the shots for Salman’s Thoroughbred Corp., his daughter talked with the prince three or four times a week. Shortly before he died in July 2002, the prince launched Kristin Mulhall’s stable by selling her two horses.

“I did everything with those first two,” she said. “I galloped them, did the grooming and mucked the stalls. I’ve been riding horses since I was 3, so this was something I was born into. But my father wasn’t a huge supporter. Because of my age, and because I was a girl, he didn’t want me on the backside.”

Mulhall might have stayed with show horses but for an injury in 2001. Hanging up some tack, she punctured her left arm on a sharp object.

“It immediately blew up,” she said.

While recuperating, she hung out at Del Mar and took a job with trainer John Shirreffs, who was training some of the prince’s horses. Less than a year later, she was on her own, also having bought a house in Monrovia to escape the escalating tension at home.

“I can’t tell you how many times I slept outside with the dogs in their doghouse,” she said.

Imperialism, who was foaled three years ago Thursday, ran 12 times -- four times for claiming prices of $25,000 or $32,000 -- for trainer Angel Salinas before he was sold privately to Taub. A friend of Mulhall’s, Greg Sally, was the middleman on the deal.

Although Mulhall had watched many of Imperialism’s races on tape, it wasn’t until he deplaned in California that she realized the gray colt’s right eye was sunken. His vision is good, but the eye, which may have been injured at birth, prevents him from seeing horses to his outside.

Imperialism drew the No. 1 hole for Saturday, a post that didn’t bother him when he came from far back to win the San Vicente on Feb. 7, in his first start for Mulhall. Imperialism returned a month later to win the San Rafael Stakes.

“The eye might have kept me from buying him if he hadn’t raced yet,” Mulhall said. “But with all those starts, even had I known about his eye, I think we still would have bought him.”

Taub, a daily visitor to the barn at Hollywood Park, marvels at Mulhall’s work with Imperialism and his other horses. Taub’s Puerto Banus, whom he races in a partnership, won the San Luis Obispo Handicap on Feb. 16.

“I pinch myself every morning,” Taub said.

“Kristin’s like Willie Mays, hitting 51 homers for the New York Giants when he was barely 24.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Santa Anita Derby

Field for the 67th Santa Anita Derby, to be run Saturday as the eighth race on an 11-race card. Purse: $750,000. Distance: 1 1/8 miles. Conditions: Grade I race for 3-year-olds. Weights: 122 pounds each. Post: 3:44 p.m. TV: ESPN (coverage starts at 2:30 p.m. and includes the Illinois Derby at Hawthorne and Aventura Stakes at Gulfstream.).

*--* PP Horse Jockey Trainer Odds 1 IMPERIALISM Victor Espinoza Kristin Mulhall 7-2 2 LUCKY PULPIT Jon Court Clifford Sise 12-1 3 WIMBLEDON Javier Santiago Bob Baffert 5-2 4 CASTLEDALE Jose Valdivia Jeff Mullins 20-1 5 QUINTONS GOLD RUSH Corey Nakatani Mike Mitchell 5-1 6 ROCK HARD TEN David Flores Jason Orman 3-1 7 ST AVERIL Tyler Baze Rafael Becerra 7-2

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