This year’s edition of the G1, $1 million Pacific Classic is everything you would want in a big, marquee race. A large field, an excellent betting race, plenty of horses shipping in and a filly trying to beat the boys. It will all come together Saturday at Del Mar.
The 11-horse field is led by the morning line favorite Knightsbridge, who is coming into the race off of an impressive showing last month at Monmouth Park. The son of Nyquist rolled to a 10 ¼ length victory in the G3 Monmouth Cup on Haskell Day, posting the highest Beyer Speed Figure of the year at 122.
“Reports are he’s been doing well,” trainer Bill Mott says from his base at Saratoga. “I’ve seen videos of him galloping and he looks good. No negatives so far.”
But there is a looming question for Knightsbridge. Can he get the mile and a quarter of the Pacific Classic?
“It’s a new challenge, going 10 furlongs,” Mott contends. “That can be a deal breaker. I’ve never seen him do it before. A lot of people think they can go a mile and a quarter in the Kentucky Derby and they don’t do it. It’s the American Classic distance, it sorts them out pretty good.”
Knightsbridge is one of two horses in the field who has not tried the 1 ¼ miles the other being the filly Om N Joy.
Five horses in the field have actually won at the distance, one of those being Hit Show, who ships in for the race. He won the Dubai World Cup at 1 ¼ miles last year.
“We feel we’re in a good spot with him with how he’s physically doing and training,” trainer Brad Cox says. “He likes the mile and a quarter, he’s been in Southern California before when he ran third in the ‘Big Cap’ and he’s ready to run.”
Hit Show is coming off a runner-up finish in the G2 Suburban at Saratoga on July 4th, albeit 10 lengths behind the winner Phileas Fogg.
“I thought he ran well,” Cox states. “There was a runaway winner in there, but we were the best of the rest. We got to get a setup. We got to hope there’s some speed in there and there appears to be. And you need some racing luck.
“I’d like for them to go really, really fast up front,” Cox adds, “and then all of them get tired around the quarter pole and he has fresh legs and runs them down.”
Saffie Joseph, Jr.’s pair of runners are expected to be up on the pace early. Forged Steel came out west and wired the field in the G2 Hollywood Gold Cup at Santa Anita on Memorial Day. Navajo Warrior went wire-to-wire in his last two outings; the G3 Pimlico Special at Laurel Park on the Friday before the Preakness and the G3 Cornhusker at Prairie Meadows last month. Both runners have won at the 1 ¼ mile distance.
Full Serrano is oh-fer-two at the 1 ¼ mile but he came close when he got rundown in the final strides by Mixto in the 2024 Pacific Classic. The Argentine-bred is a versatile horse who can set the pace if it’s there for the taking or sit back and wait.
“The ideal set up for him is to lay close where the fractions aren’t killer,” trainer John Sadler replies. “The key for him to run that distance is how the race is run and we have a good outside post. He has plenty of time to organize himself before the first turn.”
Japan’s Finger won his lone 1 ¼ mile race, the Tokyo Derby, last out. The connections plan to use the same front running tactics in Saturday’s Pacific Classic.
“We’ve asked the jockey to take the lead no matter what happens,” says liasson Mitsuoki Numamoto. “Even if Knightsbridge or Forged Steel are coming, we’ll go up front.”
One would think Finger’s biggest challenge will be negotiating left-hand turns since in Japan they run clockwise with right hand turns, the opposite of American racing. But apparently that’s not an issue.
“They actually work left-handed one day, and right-handed turns the next,” Numamoto points out. “For example, on Monday they might work left-handed and then on Tuesday they will work right-handed. That’s why most Japanese horses are used to both right-handed and left-handed turns.”
The filly Om N Joy and her trainer Aggie Ordonez are hoping to continue a trend from last weekend when the filly Luster won the prestigious King’s Plate over the boys at Woodbine and Survie, the Irish-bred daughter of Churchill, beat the boys in the G1 Christophe Clement Turf at Saratoga. Om N Joy takes on the boys Saturday in the Pacific Classic.
“I’m thrilled for the opportunity,” trainer Aggie Ordonez states. “I hope she can strut her stuff. I hear a lot of conversation about it and I think it’s great for horse racing. People have their thoughts and that’s cool.”
Om N Joy would be the first filly or mare to run in the Pacific Classic since Beholder back in 2016 and Ordonez would be the first female trainer to win the race. The daughter of Om is a closer with a ferocious kick in the late stages of races. If she gets the trip and the pace to run at, she could put a jolt into the proceedings.
Original Sin is one of the six shippers in the Pacific Classic.
“He shipped down there nice with no problems,” trainer Brendan Walsh notes. “We’re ready to go.”
The son of Curlin is coming off of a ninth-place finish in the G2 Suburban.
“It was just a mess of a race,” Walsh claims. “There was no pace and he just never got into the rhythm we wanted to get him into. It just didn’t go to his liking at all. Hopefully things will be better on Saturday.”
If Subsanador wins the Pacific Classic it may change the way people train horses in the future. Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella has utilized some old school training tactics to get his horse ready. He worked Subsanador between races two weeks ago, something you almost never see these days. Then on Wednesday, three days before the race, he gave the Argentine-bred a three-furlong ‘blowout’, another tool Mandella uses quite often to get his horses ready.
Malarchuk and British Isles round out the field. Both can be tactical but both can go to the lead should they choose. British Isles has a win at the 1 ¼ mile distance when he won the G1 Santa Anita Handicap earlier this year.
“He worked good the other day,” trainer Richard Baltas states. “He’s fit. That being said it’s a great field. A lot of good horses shipping in. A lot of speed in the race which would be good for us.”
The 36th running of the G1 Pacific Classic is Race 10 on the Saturday card. It’s a “Win and You’re In” for the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland in the fall. Probable post time is 6:45 p.m.
Here’s the field from the rail with the jockeys and the morning line odds: Om N Joy (Kent Desormeaux, 20-1); Forged Steel (Edwin Gonzalez, 6-1); Finger (Keita Tosaki, 8-1); Subsanador (Mike Smith, 12-1); Malarchuk (Umberto Rispoli, 10-1); Original Sin (Juan Hernandez, 15-1); Hit Show (Florent Geroux, 6-1); British Isles (Diego Herrera, 12-1); Navajo Warrior (Micah Husbands, 8-1); Full Serrano (Joel Rosario, 8-1), and Knightsbridge (Junior Alvarado, 5/2).