To find the winner of Saturday’s Pacific Classic, you have to look beyond the usual places.
The ranks of battle-tested older male horses in California are depleted this summer. The most promising 3-year-olds on the West Coast this season aren’t ready for a challenge like this. So much for the traditional pools of contenders for Del Mar’s $1million, Grade I, 1¼-mile race for 3-year-olds and up.
That’s why Adare Manor, a 5-year-old mare who hasn’t run against the opposite sex before, is a deserving 9-5 favorite on the track’s morning line to join 2015 Pacific Classic winner Beholder as the only females to defeat males in Del Mar’s biggest race.
It’s why Dr. Venkman, a lightly raced 4-year-old gelding who had never done more than sprint before he won the 1-1/16-mile San Diego Handicap in July, is listed at 5-2 to pass an even harder stamina test at the classic distance.
And it’s why Il Miracolo, an East Coast-based 4-year-old colt who has tried and failed repeatedly to crack the upper echelons of the sport, is a tempting betting proposition at 5-1.
Here’s the nine-horse field, in the order of post positions drawn in a ceremony Tuesday at the Brigantine restaurant in Del Mar: Il Miracolo (Mike Smith riding), There Goes Harvard (Hector Berrios, 15-1), Dr. Venkman (Antonio Fresu), Reincarnate (Kazushi Kimura, 8-1), Katonah (Tiago Pereira, 8-1), Full Serrano (Reylu Gutierrez, 12-1), Adare Manor (Juan Hernandez), None Above the Law (Jeremy Laprida, 20-1) and Mixto (Kyle Frey, 20-1).
Il Miracolo (“The Miracle”) and trainer Antonio Sano arrived at Del Mar after a cross-country flight Sunday. The horse checked in to a stall in Bob Hess Jr.’s barn, and he has been exercising on the track since Monday.
“(The flight) didn’t affect him at all. It was like a 20-minute car ride,” Sano said on the phone Thursday morning, calling Il Miracolo a “confident” horse. “Nothing brings him down. Just the way he gallops on the track, you can tell he’s a horse with a big ego.”
Nor does Sano think Il Miracolo will be bothered by racing again only 14 days after his second-place finish in the Philip H. Iselin Stakes at Monmouth Park.
“The last race, in New Jersey, the horse ran a monstrous race. And it was impressive how he came out of the race. It was like (he had) a morning workout,” Sano said. “He wants to keep running, so (the question was) what’s next for him.”
To the trainer, and owners Alexandres LLC, it made sense to ship to the Pacific Classic and try Il Miracolo over the track that will host the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 1-2.
The Pacific Classic is a “win and you’re in race,” its winner automatically qualified for the $7million Breeders’ Cup Classic.
At this point, Il Miracolo is nobody’s idea of a Breeders’ Cup Classic contender, his 21-race record showing four victories, none above the Grade III level of his wins in the Smarty Jones Stakes at Parx Racing in Philadelphia in August 2023, and the Ghostzapper Stakes at Gulfstream Park near Miami in March.
But one race at a time: Il Miracolo has some things going for him as takes on the Pacific Classic.
• Although the eight tracks he has run are all in the eastern time zone, Del Mar is in his blood. His sire, Gun Runner, clinched the 2017 Horse of the Year title by winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar, and Gun Runner’s sire, Candy Ride, won the 2003 Pacific Classic, significant for making Julie Krone the only woman jockey to win the race.
• With Smith riding Saturday, he’ll have the benefit of the jockey whose four wins in the Pacific Classic (most recently with Shared Belief in 2014) match Garrett Gomez for the most in the race.
•He has matured, grown and gotten faster sincehis hapless early tries in major races, where he finished far behind in 2023 Triple Crown preps won by Forte and the Belmont Stakes won by Arcangelo.
• The 1½-length loss in the Grade II Iselin, in which Il Miracolo carried six pounds more than winner Subsanador, was the best race of his career. Il Miracolo’s Equibase speed figure of 122 for the Iselin, run in 1:42.63 for 1-1/16 miles, was a career best and higher than all but six figures recorded in North American stakes races in 2024. Running close to Subsanador, who came within a nose of beating Newgate in the Santa Anita Handicap in March, showed Il Miracolo can hang with good California horses.
“He deserves to be where he is right now,” Sano said.
The main argument for Il Miracolo in the Pacific Classic is that he’s the only new face at a time when the familiar leaders of the California older males division are sidelined: Newgate is working toward returning from a layoff; Mr Fisk, hurt in winning the Hollywood Gold Cup at Santa Anita, will need at least a six-month break from training; and Arabian Knight, the 2023 Pacific Classic winner, was retired last week.
Those three horses are all trained by Bob Baffert, whose dominance in Southern California main track racing is such that even without them, he’ll still have two contenders – Adare Manor and Reincarnate – as he seeks a record-extending eighth Pacific Classic win.
Baffert said he respects Il Miracolo and Sano.
“He’s a good horse. He’s a good trainer. He knows what to do,” Baffert said Thursday.
This is a fun race to handicap because every horse in it will be trying to do something he – or she – hasn’t done before or hasn’t done in a while.
Adare Manor has the best chance to win, but Il Miracolo should offer attractive odds. I’ll look to bet on Il Miracolo to win if he’s 4-1 or more, and think about boxing him in exactas with Adare Manor.
My picks: 1. Adare Manor, 2. Il Miracolo, 3. Dr. Venkman.
Follow horse racing correspondent Kevin Modesti atTwitter.com/KevinModesti.
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