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Pacific ClasssicDEL MAR, CALIFORNIA SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2009 PACIFIC CLASSIC
$1,000,000, Grade I, 3-y-o & up, 10 f JOCKEYS
MIKE SMITH (Richard’s Kid) – “Bob (trainer Bob Baffert) said he was doing good. He said he wants to drop back and make that run. After that, he said, ‘Then I want you to give me one of those Hall of Fame rides.’ He was just smooth as silk out there today. He’s a big, heavy-muscled horse; the kind that tend to tie up on you. But he was just doing great today. Every step he made along the way was a good one. He just was rolling all the way. So sweet. I remember doing this one (winning the Pacific Classic) before (on Came Home in 2002). Sometimes they surprise you.” JULIEN LEPAROUX (Einstein) – “I had a great trip. It was just what we wanted. He made his move just when we wanted him to and we were all but there. And then he got beat. But it was very important that he run like this today. After his last race (5th in the Arlington Million) he had to show well today. And he did.” JOSE VALDIVIA, JR. (Rail Trip) – “If I have a different post, I think maybe I win it. You’ve got to remember, he’s never been behind horses before. But today he was. I’m used to just pushing the button on him and having him go. But today we had to wait for other horses. It made the difference.” RAFAEL BEJARANO (Parading) – “When he made his move on the turn – for about a moment – I thought maybe I was going to win. But he just couldn’t hang in there.” GARRETT GOMEZ (Colonel John) – “I was having the best trip of all. Me and Jose (Valdivia, Jr. on Rail Trip). We were down inside and saving, then we were in a jackpot. All of a sudden the leaders backed right up into us and we had nowhere to go. I had to wait and follow him (Rail Trip) through the hole and by then it was too late. Racing luck.” JOEL ROSARIO (Song of Navarone) – “I had a good trip. No problems. We just got outrun.” ALEX SOLIS (Awesome Gem) – “I had a good trip.” COREY NAKATANI (Global Hunter) – “Just not his best distance. NoT his game running this far, I don’t think.” TYLER BAZE (Informed) – “At the five-sixteenths (pole) they ran me down into the fence. It took his momentum away. Be he came back and tried again. He tried.” VICTOR ESPINOZA (Misremembered) – “I had to wait too long with him before I could let him run. I didn’t have any choice. It was the way the race came up.” Take 2 – Pacific Classic quotes
JOSEPH TALAMO (Tres Borrachos) – “It took him a while to get going, which surprised me. He just didn’t feel comfortable out there today. I think he likes it better at Hollywood. But he pulled up OK.” DAVID FLORES (Mast Track) – “He stumbled away from there. And he was never really feeling good out there. He just didn’t get into it the way he can.” TRAINERS
BOB BAFFERT (Richard’s Kid) -- “He’s been training great. He’s been getting stronger and stronger every day.” On the difference in winning the Pacific Classic with General Challenge and Richard’s Kid: “General Challenge came in here with quite a resume. He’d been in the Derby and had won big races. But to win with an older horse like Richard’s Kid is very gratifying. To take an older horse and get the job done is gratifying. I don’t have a lot of older horses, so this is good.” On Misremembered, who finished 10th as Baffert’s other entrant: “He’s been training really well here. We were thinking about the Super Derby, but decided to try him here to see if he fit with these older and maybe was good enough to go to the Breeders’ Cup. He’s young and immature. We’ll freshen him up now and he’ll be better down the road.” HELEN PITTS-BLASI (Einstein) – “He ran well and I’m pleased. Very pleased. We would have liked to have won, of course, but to see him run his good race is very rewarding.” RON ELLIS (Rail Trip) – “There just were a lot of horses in there. We got a hole on the rail and that got us through.” ROBBIE MEDINA (assistant to Claude R. “Shug” McGaughey III, Parading) -- “He had dead aim on them at the eighth pole. He ran his race.” EOIN HARTY (Colonel John) -- “We seemed to be in a good spot, but he just couldn’t get through.” CRAIG DOLLASE (Awesome Gem) -- “He had to check coming down the lane, maybe around the eighth pole. It might have cost us a placing.” OWNER
ARNOLD ZETCHER (Richard’s Kid) -- “I’ve been coming to Del Mar for at least 30 years and I started with seats way up in one corner and through the years I’ve moved down a bit. I’ve seen all the Pacific Classics and I remember Candy Ride’s race as an exciting one, but the most memorable is the one won by a horse named Richard’s Kid. I keep thinking this can’t be happening to us, but I’m glad it is.” Take 3 – Pacific Classic quotes On moving his horses to Bob Baffert: “When I decided to make a change, I thought about other trainers and Bob Baffert was the one I thought would work best for us. We were acquainted through mornings on the backside and we always got along fine. And when I decided to change my stable’s emphasis to younger horses, Bob was the one for me.” FRACTIONS: :23.16 :47.42 1:12.53 1:37.37 2:02.39 The stakes win was the sixth of the meet for Mike Smith (the most of any rider) and his second in the Pacific Classic. He now has 28 stakes wins at Del Mar. The stakes win was the fifth of the meet for Bob Baffert (the most by any trainer) and his second in the Pacific Classic. He now has 85 stakes wins at the track, which continues to add to his record for all conditioners in that regard. The price on the winner -- $50.80 – makes him the third-longest longshot to win the race. The longest were Dare and Go in 1996 ($81.20) and Missionary Ridge in 1992 ($51.00). The victory is the winner’s first graded stakes score. It was his second start on a synthetic track. He was second, beaten a nose, in the Cougar II Handicap at Del Mar on August 5 in his other. The $600,000 winner’s purse pushes his bankroll to $759,370. |
Today's Card
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