This August 21st Del Mar will host two Breeders’ Cup races and Horse Racing Tote brings you Del Mar Handicap and the Pacific Classic preview, take a look and pick your favorite!
The Pacific Classic
The Pacific Classic is one of America’s great races, and although this year there are no great horses in the $1,000,000 Grade 1 over ten furlongs on Del Mar’s main track, no Lava Man, Game On Dude, Beholder or California Chrome, there is instead a deep, competitive field for Saturday’s feature.
At first – and second – glance the race is a simple re-run of the Grade 2 San Diego at Del Mar a month ago, in which Express Train (3-1) stayed close to the pace throughout and held on gamely to beat Tripoli (5-1) by half a length, with Royal Ship (7-2) third, Magic On Tap (20-1) fifth and Sheriff Brown (30-1) seventh. He spotted weight to all except Royal Ship, who is a pound better off here for the length and a quarter he was beaten. In their previous meeting, Royal Ship was more than four lengths ahead of Express Train when they were second and third in the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup, which suggests that Royal Ship is our man, but on the other side of the ledger, Express Train is 3-4 at Del Mar while the ex-Brazilian is 0-3.
Others in the mix are New York shipper Dr Post (4-1), last year’s Belmont Stakes runner-up and Haskell third but a little bit below that level in 2021, and Tizamagician (5-1), a Grade 3 winner here last month (Cupid’s Claws (15-1) runner-up), but it’s hard to believe the winner won’t come from the San Diego and Express Train, who has been knocking on the door at Grade 1 level (second, third and fourth), can use his Del Mar key to unlock it this time.
| Horse | Jockey | Odds courtesy of Jazzsports |
| TRIPOLI | Tiago Josue Pereira | +500 |
| TIZAMAGICIAN | Flavien Prat | +500 |
| DR POST | Joel Rosario | +400 |
| ROYAL SHIP | Mike E. Smith | +350 |
| EXPRESS TRAIN | Juan J. Hernandez | +300 |
| MAGIC ON TOP | Abel Cedillo | +2000 |
| INDEPENDENCE HALL | Florent Geroux | +500 |
| SHERIFF BROWN | Edwin A. Maldonado | +3000 |
| CUPID’S CLAWS | Umberto Rispoli | +1500 |
Del Mar Handicap
Richard Mandella, who may or may not be out of luck with Royal Ship, sends tough turf campaigner United for the $300,000 Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap over a mile and three furlongs in a bid to follow up his game success in last month’s Grade 2 Eddie Read here. United has never been out of the first two in five starts at Del Mar, including when beaten a head by Red King in this race 12 months ago. Red King hasn’t won since and is 2lb worse off with United for that narrow winning margin.
| Horse | Jockey | Odds courtesy of Jazzsports |
| MEDIA BLITZ | Umberto Rispoli | +3000 |
| CROSSFIREHURRICANE | Mario Gutierrez | +3000 |
| RED KING | Joel Rosario | +800 |
| UNITED | Flavien Prat | +200 |
| MASTEROFFOXHOUNDS | Kent J. Desormeaux | +800 |
| MASTER PIECE | Drayden Van Dyke | +1500 |
| ACCLIMATE | Ricardo Gonzalez | +1000 |
| ARKLOW | Florent Geroux | +250 |
| AWARD WINNER | Juan J. Hernandez | +1500 |
| ASTRONAUT | Victor Espinoza | +2000 |
| SAY THE WORLD | Joe Bravo | +600 |
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