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.
PROLETARIAT SEEKS RARE OCEANSIDE / DEL MAR DERBY DOUBLE SUNDAY
The traditional opening day feature for Del Mar’s summer meet has been the Oceanside Stakes, long considered a prep for the Del Mar Derby. The Oceanside has been around 81 years, the Derby for 81 years. The Oceanside / Derby double has only been accomplished eight times. Proletariat will try to pull it off Sunday in the 82nd running of the G2 Del Mar Derby.
The gelded son of Raging Bull romped in the Oceanside last month, taking them wire to wire and crossing the finish line 5 ¾ lengths ahead of the closest competition.
“We always thought he was a sprinter,” trainer Jeff Mullins says. “Kyle (Frey) has done an amazing job getting this horse to settle in the mornings, slowing him down early and letting him finish strong.”
Proletariat has yet to lose as a 3-year-old, winning a six-furlong entry level allowance sprint at Santa Anita before taking the Oceanside.
“He’s a different horse,” Mullins notes. “Last year he was so confused. We ran him long, we ran him short. He was back and forth. We knew he was rank going a mile but every work, Kyle worked with him. We figured he would go to the lead (in the Oceanside) but Kyle knew what to do.”
Proletariat may have some company on the front end in the Derby. Trainer Doug O’Neill’s speedball, Pavlovian, is expected to go to the front like he did when he ran second in the G2 Louisiana Derby earlier this year.
“He’s a front runner,” O’Neill’s assistant Leandro Mora contends.” He’ll probably be the same pace that he likes to do.”
The son of Pavel broke in and got bumped at the start and was never a factor in his last race, the Real Good Deal Stakes at Del Mar last month.
“For us it was a workout,” Mora states. “He was coming back from Kentucky and he didn’t have much to do so Doug is taking it as a workout for the Derby and if it goes our way we’re going to look like geniuses.”
Trainer Michael McCarthy brings two horses to the dance including the second choice on the morning line, Tribalism.
“A step up for him but certainly a horse that deserves a chance,” McCarthy states. “He was second here the other day and he might have moved a little bit too soon. We’ll take a wait and see approach with him and hopefully we’ll get some pace to run into. He’s a very talented horse.”
McCarthy’s other entry is Bust Out, who ran fourth in the Oceanside.
Secured Freedom was a distant second to Proletariat in the Oceanside and returns to take another crack at him.
“I don’t think there’s anyone fast enough to go with the speed horse,” trainer Tim Yakteen says. “But the way we drew (Post #3) we’ll just be sitting in a nice pocket and a little off the pace. Very similar to his last race.”
The Oceanside was Secured Freedom’s first race on the turf and he passed with flying colors.
“I thought he ran a good race,” Yakteen adds. “I liked the way he got over the grass. I liked the way his action looked. The winner ran freaky. The mile and an eighth will be interesting. It’s a big unknown. He’s won at a mile and a sixteenth so hopefully the added distance will benefit us.”
Unrivaled Time, winner of last fall’s G3 Cecil B. DeMille at Del Mar, ran eighth in the Oceanside and was never a factor.
“He was a bit far back,” trainer Leonard Powell concedes. "He didn’t get the smoothest trip inside. The winner was very impressive. I don’t think anyone was going to beat the winner but I think with a better trip we could have hit the board.”
The son of Not This Time has won at the distance, taking the $125,00 Snow Chief at Santa Anita in May and he has the victory on the Del Mar turf course. One thing is certain, you won’t find Unrivaled Time contesting the pace in the Del Mar Derby on Sunday.
“He breaks well but he kind of falls back,” Powell contends. “Horses like him who have a turn of foot you cannot change their style. It’s not as big of a field as the Oceanside so hopefully he will not drop as far back and we got enough at the end to close.”
Nine colts and geldings will line up for the Del Mar Derby. It’s Race 7 on the nine race card and wraps up a fabulous weekend of stakes racing at Del Mar. Probable post time is 5:00 p.m.
Here’s the field from the rail with the jockeys and the morning line odds: Proletariat (Kyle Frey, 9/5); Unrivaled Time (Armando Ayuso, 15-1); Secured Freedom (Ramon Vazquez, 8-1); Tribalism (Joel Rosario, 5-1); Bust Out (Umberto Rispoli, 8-1); Pavlovian (Edwin Maldonado, 8-1); Jordi Bear (Antonio Fresu, 8-1); Melismatic (Kazushi Kimura, 6-1), and Charlie’s Curlin (Juan Hernandez, 12-1).
JENA ANTONUCCI THE NEWEST TRAINER TO GIVE DEL MAR A TRY
On the day when Aggie Ordonez attempts to become the first female trainer to win the Pacific Classic, a woman who broke a glass ceiling for women in horse racing a few years ago will be watching with interest. Jena Antonucci was the first female trainer to win an American Triple Crown race when her colt Arcangelo captured the 2023 Belmont Stakes.
She manages a wide-spread operation back east and this summer has brought a string of horses out to Del Mar for the first time. She’s run horses in two races at the meet, just missing in the Real Good Deal Stakes with Party Animal and then scoring her first win ever at Del Mar with Bull Shoals in a maiden special weight last Sunday.
“I’m pretty unorthodox so I’m opened minded to trying new things,” Antonucci says about bringing a string out west. “We just had the right horses to do it with this year. The Bushman’s (of Bushman Thoroughbreds) are delightful, fantastic people and they ended up having these two Cal-bred sires. They’ve been on our radar as we watched them get their careers going. We wanted to make sure they were going to be of the quality for us to take a swing with it all and it’s panned out.”
Antonucci has a handful of horses at Del Mar. The bulk of her operation is in New York.
“We also have a smaller group in Florida,” she notes. “We also break and develop horses on the farm (in Ocala, Florida). We fluctuate but on the training side of the racetrack we probably have about 50 horses.”
It’s not easy starting up an operation on the opposite side of the country but so far Antonucci hasn’t had any major issues.
“I’m very blessed to have a great team who are there with them,” Antonucci states. “The hardest thing is to try and figure out the numbers of what horses run out there versus the East Coast. They don’t always match up. My biggest challenge is making sure I’m placing horses correctly.”
It would be an understatement to say Antonucci knows her horses. She has been around them all her life.
“I was 3 ½ years old and we drove by a barn every day,” she recalls. “I told my mother incessantly that I wanted to go and she finally broke down. I grew up doing show horses and re-training a lot of Thoroughbreds to be show horses. My grandparents got into the horse races when I was 10 or 12 years old and that was my exposure initially to racehorses. It’s been a winding road ever since.”
A long, winding road. The 50-year-old conditioner didn’t become a full-time trainer for another 25 years in 2010.
“That wasn’t on purpose,” Antonucci explains. “I was building a business of mares and prepping for sales and foaling and I did a lot of rehab of getting horses back to other trainers. I was getting frustrated watching them not achieve what I thought they should be. So I started racing off of the farm in Florida and took the big plunge up to New York. I got my head beat in for a good bit until I got some better horses and figured some things out.
“I’m glad I waited to do it when I did,” Antonucci adds. “I had more time in business and things behind me that I felt more prepared.”
Though even Antonucci admits she was nowhere near prepared for what was coming when Arcangelo came rolling down the Belmont stretch to win the biggest race of their career.
“My gratitude for the horse is more than anything,” Antonucci says. “This sport can be a bit salty as far as people being kind and supportive and the biggest take away from that experience was the genuine kindness, not only from horsemen but beyond. That’s the biggest take away I still carry in my heart.”
As far as how it changed her life, she says there was one notable difference.
“It just turned the volume up,” Antonucci exclaims. “It has allowed me the opportunity to speak about our sport, tell people about our sport and try to educate people. I appreciate having that opportunity now.”
COOLING OUT: Juan Hernandez’ fabulous journey went as planned and the rider is back in Del Mar and ready to ride some races this afternoon. Hernandez’ trip across the pond could not have gone better. He won the race at York, riding Bacio to victory in the Nunthorpe Stakes, a “Win and You’re In” for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. He could be seen running from the winner’s circle, still in his boots and silks, carrying his suitcase to a waiting helicopter and a ride to Heathrow Airport in London. There he caught his flight to LAX and reportedly arrived at Del Mar with plenty of time to spare. He doesn’t ride today until the fourth race…Art Sherman, trainer of two-time Horse of the Year California Chrome, will be in the winner’s circle to present the trophy for the Green Flash today. The 89-year-old, who is retired from racing, will be joined by a crew of “Chromies”, the popular fan group of California Chrome, winner of the Pacific Classic in 2016…One noticeable absence from today’s Pacific Classic will be trainer Bob Baffert. It will be the second year in a row that Baffert, a fixture of the Classic for over two decades, will not have a horse in the race. For 16 consecutive years, from 2009 to 2024, Baffert had at least one runner in Del Mar’s marquee race. He’s won the race seven times. He initially hoped to run his ace Nysos in the Classic but an issue was discovered during training and he was abruptly retired from racing…Notable works on Saturday: Dirt – Dr. Venkman (4f, :48.60); Majestic Oops (4f, :48.40); Nevada Beach (4f, :47.80); On The Whim (4f, :49.00); She’s No Quant (4f, :53.00); Whiskey Decision (4f, :49.00); Formidable Man (5f, 1:00.00); Mirahmadi (5f, :59.20); Mondego (5f, 1:00.60); Privman (5f, :59.20); Speedy Wilson (5f, 1:01.20), and Stronghold (5f, 1:00.80). 193 horses put in official works at Del Mar on Saturday.