Finger © Zoe Metz Photo
PACIFIC CLASSIC RUNNERS PREP FOR SATURDAY’S BIG RACE
Preparations continue for the field of 11 expected to head to the gate Saturday for the 36th running of the G1, $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar. Most of the final works were completed over the weekend so now it’s some galloping, some schooling and keeping the participants happy to race day.
Unless you’re in Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella’s barn then you get a blowout in the middle of the week like Subsanador got Wednesday morning.
“He’s had long, hard works,” Mandella explains. “A little short blowout is like a ‘cheering up’ kind of a deal,”
The Argentine-bred whistled three furlongs in a bullet :36.40, best of 11 other runners at the distance.
“He couldn’t be any better going into this race,” Mandella says.
The race favorite, Knightsbridge, has made his way out to the main track a couple of times since arriving at Del Mar late Saturday night. He drew the outside post in the field of 11.
“Everything looks good to me,” trainer Bill Mott says from his base at Saratoga. “No negatives so far.”
Trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr.’s pair arrived Tuesday and have been out on the track the past two days. Forged Steel and Navajo Warrior both handled the ship like pros according to assistant Julia Ezra. Wednesday they jogged, their first time over the main track since their arrival.
That’s not to say this is the first time the two have been on the west coast. Navajo Warrior spent the first full year of his racing career in Southern California, breaking his maiden at Del Mar in 2024. He had won three in a row at Santa Anita when he was sold to East Coast interests and taken back to Saratoga last summer. He hasn’t been back to California since.
Forged Steel made his first venture out west as recently as May when he aired in the G2 Hollywood Gold Cup at Santa Anita, winning by 9 ½ lengths.
The horse that ran second to Forged Steel that day entered the Pacific Classic. Malarchuk was also making his California debut when he ran in the Gold Cup on Memorial Day. The son of Nyquist spent the first two years of his racing career running in New York, with a winter visit to Florida. Reddam Racing bought him in July of 2025 and he’s been in trainer Michael McCarthy’s barn this year.
“He gets to run out of his own stall here,” McCarthy gives for his reason for running in the Classic.
Full Serrano is no stranger to Del Mar. He had his U.S debut at the seaside oval in August of 2024. The Argentine-bred scored the biggest victory of his racing career at Del Mar later that year when he won the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.
“He had a good work (6f, 1:11) on Saturday,” Sadler noted. “He schooled in the paddock Wednesday morning, and he’ll go back again Thursday and Friday and stand in the gate on Thursday. Other than that, he’s ready to go.”
Om N Joy has been galloping in the mornings and trainer Aggie Ordonez plans to stand her in the gate at some point this week. The Cal-bred filly will be taking on the boys for the first time.
“I’m extremely excited,” Ordonez states. “I’m glad I’m old enough to appreciate it.”
A regular out on the track in the mornings since he arrived at Del Mar Sunday has been Finger, who’s hoping to become the first Japanese horse to win the Pacific Classic.
“(Thursday) We will go to the paddock for schooling,” liaison Mitsuoki Numamoto explains. “We also plan to break from the gate and, not breeze, but get some work.”
Finger arrived at LAX on Friday and sat in quarantine until Sunday morning when he was vanned down to Del Mar.
“He handled everything so well,” Numamoto contends. “During the flight he drank well and he ate well so it was comfortable for him.”
This is the son of Gun Runner’s first time outside of Japan.
The Pacific Classic is Race 10 on the 11-race card Saturday. Probable post time is 6:45 p.m.
O’NEILL BUILDS A SIZABLE LEAD IN TRAINERS’ STANDINGS AT DEL MAR
Doug O’Neill is having a very good 2026 summer meet at Del Mar. After winning the Classic Meet training title at Santa Anita this past winter, he has carried the momentum into the summer and currently holds a sizable lead in the trainers’ standings at Del Mar.
O’Neill is up by seven over his nearest rival, Philip D’Amato. He has 17 victories to D’Amato’s 10. Should he hang on through the final three weeks of racing at the seaside oval it would be his first trainers’ title here since 2019 and it would be his sixth title overall at Del Mar. Between 2004 and 2010 he won the title four times.
After O’Neill and D’Amato in the trainer standings there’s a four-way logjam for third place with Michael McCarthy, John Sadler, George Papaprodromou and Peter Miller with eight. Bob Baffert has seven wins and Mark Glatt six. Antonio Garcia has made six trips to the winner’s circle and then six trainers are tied with five wins to round out the Top 10.
Sixty-four different trainers have won a race at Del Mar this meet.
It’s a little bit tighter at the top of the jockey standings at the start of the race week after Joel Rosario put together a banner weekend and closed to within one victory of defending champion and current leader, Juan Hernandez.
Rosario trailed by four wins coming into week five of the summer meet but rattled off eight wins over the four-day work week including a hat trick on Saturday. Hernandez managed five victories last week and has 25 entering the new week of racing to Rosario’s 24.
Antonio Fresu remains within striking distance with 17 wins. He’s in third place in the standings followed by Kazushi Kimura with 15. Then they start stacking up. Umberto Rispoli has 13; Emisael Jaramillo 12; Hector I. Berrios 11 and Armando Ayuso with 10.
Rounding out the Top 10 are Tyler Baze with six victories and Kyle Frey with five.
Hernandez continues to dominate in the stakes races. He won another one Sunday with an armchair ride aboard Sweet Azteca in the G3 Rancho Bernardo. It was her third straight Rancho Bernardo victory and his seventh stakes win of the meet. To add some perspective: There have only been 20 stakes races at Del Mar in 2026. His closest competitor is Umberto Rispoli with three.
Reddam Racing continues to lead the owners’ standings with eight victories and $558,720 in earnings. Harris Farms comes in with four wins followed by six owners with three wins including Run Fast Racing, known for having celebrity rappers in its ownership group. They have entered four horses during the meet and won three races. When Run Fast teams up with Great Friends Stables, they are 3-for-3.
The average field sizes at Del Mar continue to be among the highest in the nation at 8.45.
Winning favorites have made a complete comeback. The betting favorite won 16 of 36 races last week to lift the season mark to 31.46%, inside the national average of 31-33% for the first time this year.
KING OF GOSFORD, CABO SPIRIT LEAD FULL FIELD IN G2 DEL MAR MILE
The last of the four graded stakes races on Saturday’s card is the G2 Del Mar Mile on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course. Twelve horses are entered in a very competitive field that features the heartbreaking runner-up in the G2 Eddie Read earlier this summer; the runner-up in the G1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita; the runner-up in the G2 Kilroe Mile, and the winner of the Wickerr Stakes at Del Mar last month who won the Shoemaker Mile in 2025.
That was King of Gosford who followed up his win in the Shoemaker with a run in last year’s Del Mar Mile. It was a race trainer Philip D’Amato would just as soon forget.
“He got caught up with John Sadler’s horse (Suchet) and he cut up his hind leg,” D’Amato recalls. “The only way it could heal properly was to take him out of training.”
The English-bred wouldn’t race again until April of this year when he missed by 1 ¼ lengths to stablemate Almendares in his comeback, the G3 American Stakes. He followed with a defense of his title in the Shoemaker Mile and came up 1 ½ lengths short in third place before winning the $100k Wickerr.
“We always do right by our horse,” D’Amato explains, “and he rewarded us in the Wickerr. He’s coming back in good shape, rounding into form and hopefully he’ll reward us in the Del Mar Mile.”
Almendares is also entered by D’Amato. He’s coming off a sixth-place finish in the Eddie Read last month.
“That was kind of a cluster,” D’Amato claims. “He was supposed to sit and come from behind and another horse bounced off of him and got him real rank. He sat too close and when that happens he never runs well. He’ll be anchored and come with a run.”
Almendares was runner-up in the Del Mar Mile last year.
The defending champ in the Del Mar Mile, Formidable Man, is off to Kentucky Downs to run in the $2 million Mint Millions but trainer Michael McCarthy has another horse ready to roll. Detain is an Irish-bred who arrived in McCarthy’s barn five months ago and has run twice in allowance company, winning on opening day at Del Mar. Judging by his races over in England, he fits right in with this group.
“This is a little bit sharper of a distance than the flat mile,” McCarthy contends. “I thought we would try this and obviously it gives us options. If it’s too short, then we can come back in the John Henry at a mile and a quarter, or if he does run well going a mile then we got the City of Hope.”
Cabo Spirit is ready to go again after his heartbreaking loss to Gold Phoenix in the Eddie Read, a race in which he led every step of the way until the end.
“He ran a huge race,” trainer George Papaprodromou says. “He drifted out in the stretch. He should have won the race.”
But instead, he missed by a nose in a three-horse blanket finish that also involved Formidable Man. He gets the inside post which could be ideal for his front running tactics.
“He’s the speed of the race,” Papaprodromou points out. “Obviously they’re going to be after us. It all depends on if someone hooks up with us.”
One of the horses who may be lying just off the pace is El Potente, runner-up in the Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita in March.
“He ran a great race,” trainer Dan Blacker contends. “I think he was unlucky not to win.”
The son of Temple City hasn’t raced since the Kilroe on March 7.
“It’s not ideal to draw post 12 of 12,” Blacker adds, “but the way the race looks on paper if everyone goes it might not work out too bad. There seems like there’s plenty of speed down on the inside with Flyover and Cabo. I think he’s got natural speed at this distance and he’s probably going to be prominently placed. He doesn’t have to have the lead by any means. In fact, I think he runs better if he can stalk something.”
It’s the 40th running of the G2 Del Mar Mile which has been won by the likes of Hong Kong Harry, Obviously, Alphabet Soup, Twilight Agenda and Precisionist. It’s the final race of the day, Race 11. Probable post is 7:15 p.m.
Here’s the field from the rail with the jockeys and morning line odds: Cabo Spirit (Mike Smith, 8-1); Seal Team (Joel Rosario, 15-1); Artislas (Julien Leparoux, 15-1); Freedom’s Not Free (Emisael Jaramillo, 12-1); Detain (Juan Hernandez, 10-1); Sinsel (Kazushi Kimura, 8-1); Almendares (Antonio Fresu, 6-1); Astronomer (Victor Espinoza 20-1); King of Gosford (Umberto Rispoli, 5-1); Flyover (Armando Ayuso, 10-1); Twirling Point (Ricky Gonzalez, 12-1), and El Potente (Hector I. Berrios, 7/2).
PACIFIC CLASSIC BETTING CHALLENGE ON TAP AT DEL MAR SATURDAY
The ninth annual Pacific Classic Betting Challenge will be held at Del Mar Saturday in conjunction with the August 22 race card at the shore oval featuring the $1-million Pacific Classic.
The event is a one-day live bankroll wagering contest with participation from either on track or online via TVG.com or Xpressbet.com. Of the $4,000 total “buy-in” per entry, $3,000 is “live money” bankroll for wagers and $1,000 goes to the prize pool. The top finishers in the challenge will share 100% of the prize pool money.
Wagering from the Challenge participants is expected to be approximately $1,000,000 from the 200 or so players. Besides the winnings involved, the top player in the event gets a paid $10,000 admission to the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge, America’s top handicapping event.
The onsite location for the Challenge is the Star Fiddle Skyroom on the track’s Sixth Floor. If playing outside the Contest room, entrants may place wagers on self-service betting machines throughout the facility.
Challenge players can begin check-in Saturday beginning at 11:45 a.m. at the umbrella table in front of the DMTC Executive Offices.
COOLING OUT: Sweet Azteca came out of her victory in the G3 Rancho Bernardo on Sunday in good order. Trainer Richard Baltas says he will train the daughter of Sharp Azteca to the Breeders’ Cup…A couple of firsts at Del Mar Sunday: Trainer Jena Antonucci, the first female trainer to ever win a Triple Crown race when her Arcangelo won the 2023 Belmont Stakes, won her first race ever at Del Mar with Bull Shoals in Sunday’s opener…Jockey Roxanne Liegeois won her first race in the U.S. Sunday at Del Mar when she booted home Chasing Kat in Race 2 for trainer George Papaprodromou. Liegeois came to Del Mar from France where she had won four races. She’s been working as an exercise rider for Papaprodromou. “She’s been with us for three months but she goes back home in two weeks,” the trainer says…Big Balloons on Sunday when Cupid Cowboy scored in Race 3 at 50-1. Ridden by Abel Lezcano for trainer Edwin Alvarez, Cupid Cowboy paid $106.20, the second highest payoff on a $2 win ticket this summer at Del Mar…Notable works on Thursday: Dirt – Look Forward (4f, :47.20), and Super Corredora (4f, :47.80). 112 horses put in official works at Del Mar on Thursday; 98 on the dirt and 14 on the turf.