Om N Joy © Benoit Photo
PACIFIC CLASSIC DAY: THE JOCKEYS AND THE GIRLS VS. THE BOYS
Eleven quality Thoroughbreds will line up this afternoon for another edition of the G1, $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar. Six are shipping in for the big race including Knightsbridge, the ninth ranked horse on the NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll.
But when you talk about this year’s Pacific Classic you have to talk about the filly in the room. Om N Joy will try to become just the second filly or mare to win the Pacific Classic when she takes on the boys today. Who better to ask about the girls running against the boys than Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella? He conditioned the super mare Beholder through her illustrious career that included a win against the boys in the 2015 Pacific Classic.
“You look for that special ability,” Mandella says about taking the big leap of faith. “You don’t want to send a sissy out there. Generally, you want a filly that’s aggressive and has enough ability to rise up and make that step up.”
Beholder was all of that and then some. Mandella was almost giddy after she handily won her race prior to the Classic in 2015.
“When she won the Clement Hirsch so easy,” Mandella recalls. “I said in the winner’s circle afterward ‘We’re going to try the big one’ just because she was doing so well.”
Beholder would go on to win the Pacific Classic by 8 ¼ lengths, beating the likes of Hoppertunity, Bayern and Imperative.
“I had a filly named Advancing Star for Golden Eagle years ago,” Mandella adds. “She beat the colts in a sprint. It was a turf stakes race for colts and she beat them.”
That was the G3 Hollywood Turf Express at Hollywood Park in 1997. Mandella’s had others over his 53-year career but they’ve been few and far between.
“Never a lot of times,” Mandella contends. “But when they’re right and when they’re young sometimes the girls are more advanced than the colts. Just like people, the girls learn quicker.”
Mandella has a theory as to why we don’t see the fillies and mares take on the boys more often.
“Because the races are written to separate them,” Mandella insists. “We just mentally think they’re not as good. That’s not always so. If they ran all races as open the mares would hold their own. It’s who’s the fastest horse. But we have our categorized races that tend to lead us into one or the other.”
While this year’s Pacific Classic has attracted top horses from around the country, and even from Japan, it also brings top jockeys to Del Mar. Alongside Hall of Fame jockeys Mike Smith and Kent Desormeaux, who ride at the seaside oval regularly, there will be last year’s Kentucky Derby winning jockey Junior Alvarado. The regular rider for Horse of the Year Sovereignty comes to town to ride the race favorite Knightsbridge for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.
Florent Geroux is back to ride Hit Show for trainer Brad Cox. Geroux has made frequent visits to Del Mar over the years, but basically rides back east and in Kentucky.
Florida-based conditioner Saffie Joseph, Jr. has deployed two of South Florida’s best jockeys. Edwin Gonzalez will ride Forged Steel and Navajo Warrior will be ridden by Micah Husbands, who was at Del Mar recently when he rode Eunomia to a Grade I victory in the Clement L. Hirsch.
Then there’s Keita Tosaki, one of Japan’s brilliant jockeys who ships in with Finger for the Classic. They all join Del Mar’s Umberto Rispoli, Juan Hernandez, Diego Herrera and Joel Rosario to ride in this year’s Pacific Classic.
How wide open is today’s Pacific Classic? A random poll of people watching the morning works Friday came up with seven different choices before someone offered a duplicate winner. As one person noted, every horse has a positive for being the choice and every horse has a negative telling you not to pick that horse.
Can he or she get the distance? Will the front runners be compromised by a furious pace duel? These questions and more will be answered by seven o’clock tonight when Del Mar crowns another Pacific Classic winner.