Adare Manor drew post position 7 of 9 and is the 9-5 favorite on Jeff Siegel’s morning line for Saturday’s $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar. The 5-year-old mare pursues history as she looks to join Hall of Famer Beholder as the only mares to beat the boys in the mile and one-quarter test, which inaugurated in 1991. Her trainer, Bob Baffert, won this race a year ago with Arabian Knight and looks to pad his record with an eighth Pacific Classic score.
Horseplayers at 1/ST BET and Xpressbet on Saturday can enjoy a Bet $100, Get $25 promotion when you play at least $100 on the races both at Del Mar and Saratoga.
Adare Manor (pictured above) has won 10 of 18 starts, including 3 straight. And like Adare Manor, Beholder was age 5 when she won the 2015 Pacific Classic in no-doubt-about-it-style. She, too, was coming off a victory in Del Mar’s Clement L. Hirsch, before scoring by 8-1/4 lengths as the 2-1 favorite.
Adare Manor rarely races more than a length off the lead and figures to be forwardly placed throughout the Pacific Classic. Six of these entrants have battled for the lead in recent outings and the pace should be contested. With a long run to the first turn at 10 furlongs, post should not be a major handicapping factor.
The Pacific Classic’s distance will be the longest attempt to date for Adare Manor, as it alswo will be for Grade 2 San Diego winner Dr. Venkman, who has sprinted in 4 of 5 starts. He’s by sprinter-turned Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Ghostzapper and boasts a 5: 3-2-0 record for Mark Glatt.
The field also includes Argentine export Full Serrano, a front-end mile allowance winner at Del Mar earlier this month in his only US start for John Sadler, who has trained 4 of the last 6 Pacific Classic winners. The only true shipper in the lineup will be multiple Grade 3 winner Il Miracolo, who has split time between Florida and Saratoga training bases while traveling the country and winning 1 of his last 8 with 6 additional in-the-money finishes during that time. Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith seeks a record-breaking fifth Pacific Classic victory, which would push him past the late Garrett Gomez on the all-time list. Michael McCarthy has more stakes wins this summer at Del Mar (4) than any other trainer and his owners have supplemented There Goes Harvard at the eleventh hour.
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Del Mar // Race 10 // X pm ET // $1 million Pacific Classic // 1-1/4 miles
1-Il Miracolo (Mike Smith // Antonio Sano) 5-1
2-There Goes Harvard (Hector Berrios // Michael McCarthy) 15-1
3--Dr. Venkman (Antonio Fresu // Mark Glatt) 5-2
4-Reincarnate (Kazushi Kimura // Bob Baffert) 8-1
5-Katonah (Tiago Pereira // Doug O’Neill) 8-1
6-Full Serrano (Reylu Gutierrez // John Sadler) 12-1
7-Adare Manor (Juan Hernandez) // Bob Baffert) 9-5
8-None Above the Law (Jeremy Laprida // Jorge Periban) 20-1
9-Mixto (Kyle Frey // Doug O’Neill) 20-1
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Also Saturday at Del Mar:
Grade 2 $300,000 Del Mar Handicap
Grade 2 $300,000 Del Mar Mile
Grade 3 $150,000 Torrey Pines
Grade 3 $150,000 Green Flash
-- All undercard entries will be taken Wednesday
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