The sparkling Pacific Classic Trophy. (Benoit photo)
Pacific Classic Record Breakers
Jim Charvat
Another Pacific classic will go and with every run there is the possibility of a record setting performance. As the classic gets older, these records become more prestigious.
Last year the Longshot Mixture Caught the Pacific Classic and paid $ 46.40 out of a $ 2 win ticket. But that is not the most that a classic winner has paid. You have to go back to 1996 to find the longest priced winner. That was then Dare and go shocked the racing world and defeated the “invincible, the invincible, the unbeatable” Cigar.
“I was also a fan of cigars,” recalls Dare and Go’s trainer Richard Mandella. “So I was surprised to see him beat cigar. I received hate mail. I warned me that I would not be out at night, but he didn’t sign his name, so I thought it was good.”
Dare and Go went on 39-1 and paid $ 81.20. Cigar still holds the record for the shortest priced runner in the Pacific Classic on 1-10. The longest priced runner in the classic was Aryton S in 1998 who went off on 185-1 and he ran like that. He would finish eighth to free house.
The shortest priced horse to win the Pacific Classic was Flightline in 2022. He went on 3-10 and ran like that, destroyed the field and paid $ 2.60 to his donors.
Trainer John Sadler would later say that even secretariat could not have beat Flightline on that day.
“Absolutely,” Sadler said with a smile. “I don’t think there was a horse that would have defeated him in that race.”
Flightline Also set the goal for the biggest profit margin and crosses the wire 19 ¼ lengths better than its closest competitor, Country Grammar.
“He thinks he won the race,” would be a joke the trainer of Country Grammar Bob Baffert.
Flightline not only blew away the field on that Pacific Classic Day, he also blew away the old record for the victory margin, which was set 12 ½ lengths by another Sadler -Stagiair Acceleraate in 2018.
The smallest victory margin in the Pacific Classic came in 2011 when Acclamation, a CAL-Foked son of unusual heat, defeated sweets through a head. Acclamation was trained by Donald Warren and driven by Patrick Valenzuela. He is one of the seven Cal-Beds to win the classic.
Acclamation Was 5 years old when he won the tent race of Del Mar, but that is not the oldest horse ever won the Pacific Classic. That goes to two horses: one was pleasantly perfect, a beautiful bay horse that won the race at the age of six.
“For some reason, he was never appreciated as well as he was,” notes Mandella. “He had pericarditis, a heart infection, as a 2-and-3-year-old. That’s why he didn’t walk. That is what people fall from the gym in the gym. They don’t know they are sick and we had no idea (with pleasantly perfect). He looked like a million dollars, but he would be very easy to overcome. And what he did, it is my mind.”
Fellow Was also a 6-year-old when he walked away with the 2013 edition.
“He was a speed horse and he had to be in charge,” Baffert recalls. “(Trainer Jerry) Hollendorfer had a speed horse outside of us and Mark Casse told his driver to keep us as far as possible out of the play (the first time). But when they broke, the game at Dude missed the break.
“So the other Speed Horse (BlueskiesNrainbows) went on,” Baffert continues, “and the Jockey (on Casse’s Horse) saw the Speed -horse and I think he got confused and thought the game was on a guy because he just held the poor Jerry Hollendorfer’s horse there.”
He won the race with a record of 8 ½ lengths at the time.
Game On Dude was again by Awesome from a devil’s due mare. Baseball Great Joe Torre was co -owner and led the gelding in the circle of the winner. The ‘guy’ now lives with old friends in Kentucky, he is one of the four gentlemen to win the race. The others were Dear friendThe winner of the inaugural running in 1991, Lava -Man in 2006 and shared belief in 2014
Best friend and shared faith were 3-year-olds when they won, how youngest a horse can be and win the Pacific Classic. Over the years there have been six second winners. The other four were a general challenge in 1999; Came home in 2002; Dullahan in 2012 and Arabian Knight in 2023.
Undoubtedly, the most unforgettable Pacific Classic was the only run in 2015 when the mare Spectator Bankte Bankte van Del Mar by beating the boys. She is the only woman who wins the classic.
“I had a flight that had just won the San Diego,” Mandella recalls. “There was no horse in the barn that I could work with Beerde that she would not beat it easily. So after she won the Clement Hirsch, I realized:” She can beat everyone. “She gave me that confidence.”
He remembers the race as it was yesterday.
“It was so great,” Mandella adds. “Gary Stevens has never moved. She did it all like it was being mapped. She hit the pole of three-eight and he is (Stevens) that she was fourth. He said, “I didn’t even think about moving and she just started rolling” and he bought her and pulled her over at the finish. “
Bolder would return in 2016 to defend her crown, but that was the year that California Chrome compiled his second Horse of the Year campaign and had to settle for a spectator with the second in the Pacific Classic that year.
Four other women have made a chance to beat the boys in the classic. Padeana in 1992, island fashion in 2005, Amani in 2012 and Byrama in 2013. None of them ended better than fifth.
Three horses have achieved back-to-back victories in the Pacific Classic. Tinners Way In 1994 and ’95. He would finish second in an attempt to win it three years in a row. No horse has ever done that.
There was Skimming In the editions of 2000 and 2001. Both Tinners Way and Skimming were trained by Bobby Frankel and owned by Juddmonte Farms.
Richard’s child Came along and won it in 2009 and 2010.
“I remember that I needed a driver for him,” says Baffert. “I was at the draw and I saw that Mike Smith was open. I told Mike later” If you win this race, I will get my knees and I will bow in the circle of the winner for you. “
Richard’s child was one of the three horses with the most starts in the Pacific Classic. He had four starts together with Awesome Gem and Game On Dude.
The largest field for a Pacific Classic was in 2002 when 14 horses went to the post. That was the year that the 3-year-old came home to win the classic for trainer Paco Gonzalez and Jockey Mike Smith, who took the first of his record-typing four Pacific Classic victories.
The smallest field came in 2003 a year later when only four horses showed up. It was quality over quantity that year. Sid and Jenny Craig’s Candy ride Won the race that won the Odds-on-favorite favorite Medaglia d’Oro and two-time Santa Anita Handicap winner Milwaukee Brew. Candy Ride was trained by the big Ron Mcanally and driven by Hall of Famer Julie Krone.
Candy Ride still has the record for the fastest running of the Pacific Classic on Dirt. The Argentine-bred covered the mile and a quarter in 1: 59.11. The fastest on the Polytrack, which was in play between 2007 and 2014, was from Dullahan in 2012. He stopped the clock at 1: 59.54.
The slowest running, on the dirt, came in 2019 when higher current came home in 2: 02.43. Student council clocks in 2007 the slowest Pacific classic on the Polytrack when he hit home in 2: 07.29.
Mike Smith and the late Garrett Gomez have won the most Pacific Classics from Jockeys with four. Smith won his first classic Came home And went back-to-back in 2009 and 2010 on Richard’s child. He achieved his most recent Pacific Classic victory on shared faith in 2014.
“He has a special place in my heart,” says Smith about shared faith, who unexpectedly died of complications in 2016 due to colic. “To win races on him, that’s incredible.
“If you are going to win one, that is the one you want to win,” says Smith about the classic, “and not because of the wallet, but because of the prestige. It’s just an honor to win something like that. Even to just get the chance to drive in, it means a lot.
Gomez won his first two Pacific classics about skimming in 2000 and 2001. He also drove Boro To the victory in 2005 and Intervene in 2008.
Bob Baffert is the leading trainer in Pacific Classic victories with seven.
“My first was with General Challenge (1999),” says Baffert. “That was the coolest one. Winning for John Mabee, the founder of the Pacific Classic.”
Baffert has achieved a victory than Bobby Frankel, who runs four of the first five and won six of the first nine. He won four right between 1992 and 1995. That is a record that may never have been matched. No trainer has ever won three-on-one-row outside of Frankel. John Sadler won four out of five between 2018 and 2022. He finished fourth with a higher power in 2020.
But records are made to be broken and, who knows, with the group that was collected for this year’s race, it would not surprise anyone if we see anything that we have never seen before in the legendary history of the Pacific Classic.
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