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Adare Manor captures the Clement L. Hirsch two years in a row (Ernie Belmonte/Past The Wire)
Del Mar Press Release
DEL MAR, Calif.— There’s are very few things capable of lifting the significance of a horse race more than having one of the girls run against the boys. In recent weeks we’ve seen a filly, Caitlinhergrtness, win the King’s Plate up at Woodbine, Canada’s equivalent of the Kentucky Derby. We saw Thorpedo Anna just miss in the G1 Travers last weekend in a race many are comparing to Zenyatta’s near miss against Blame in the Breeders’ Cup Classic in 2010. She just ran out of room.
Now, trainer Bob Baffert will send his super mare, Adare Manor, in the G1 FanDuel Racing Pacific Classic this Saturday at Del Mar. It’s the 34th running of Del Mar’s marquee race. Nine horses are entered in the 1 ¼ mile test with a $1 million purse.
Baffert first raised the idea of starting Adare Manor in the Pacific Classic after she won the G1 Clement Hirsch at Del Mar earlier this month.
“After she won that race I thought ‘We’ll just see’,” Baffert recalls. “Leave it open. I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t want to talk myself into it. If she’s training well maybe I’ll put her in there. She worked well. I was looking for a reason not to run her but she’s doing well.”
Only one other mare has ever won the Pacific Classic. Beholder crushed the boys in the 2015 edition, winning by 8 ¼ lengths. She came back the following year and ran second to two-time Horse of the Year California Chrome. She’s one of five fillies and mares to take a shot in the Classic, including the great Paseana in 1992. Owner Michael Lund Petersen was all in on the idea of running Adare Manor against the boys in the Pacific Classic.
“He leaves it up to me,” Baffert says. “Michael Lund is a real sports guy. I explained to him the reasons why I was thinking about doing it. Then the filly that she beat (Scylla) came back and ran second in a Grade one (the Ballerina at Saratoga) Saturday. It was a legitimate Grade one.”
Adare Manor, a daughter of Uncle Mo and winner of three graded stakes this year, including the G1 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park in April, has never run a mile and a quarter race. But that doesn’t concern Baffert who added the recent success of the fillies and mares against the boys had nothing to do with the decision to run her in the Pacific Classic this weekend.
The ‘other’ Baffert horse in the Classic will be Reincarnate, runner-up in his last two races, the G2 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on Memorial Day and the G3 Cougar II at Del Mar last month.
“He’s doing great, he’s good,” Baffert notes. “You can throw out that last race. He just didn’t run his race. He always shows up and he runs hard.”
Reincarnate has fired bullets in his last two works on the Del Mar main track.
Dr. Venkman is expected to give Adare Manor plenty to handle on Saturday. The son of Ghostzapper won the G2 San Diego Handicap, the local prep for the Pacific Classic. It was his first race around two turns after opening a lot of eyes with some impressive sprint races.
“You want to work your way up to a route,” trainer Mark Glatt says. “He was certainly very effective sprinting and you’re always a little bit on edge to make a change if they’re running so well, which he had done early on in his career. We always thought after this layoff, the sooner we got him going farther the better he might get. I think we kind of proved that in the San Diego. We’ll see if the mile and a quarter is within his wheel house. I think it will be.”
Dr. Venkman will break from the number three post position.
“I would have rather have drawn a little farther outside,” Glatt concedes. “It’s not the one. Antonio (Fresu) will just have to figure out a trip.”
Dr. Venkman has five lifetime starts and finished first or second in all five.
The G1 FanDuel Racing Pacific Classic will go off as the 10th race on the 11-race card Saturday. Probable post is 6 p.m. It’s a ‘Win and You’re In’ for the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar on November 2.
Here’s the field from the rail with the jockeys and the morning line odds: Il Miracolo (Mike Smith, 8-1); There Goes Harvard (Hector I. Berrios, 20-1); Dr. Venkman (5/2); Reincarnate (Kazushi Kimura, 20-1); Katonah (Tiago Pereira, 8-1); Full Serrano (Reylu Gutierrez, 5-1); Adare Manor (Juan Hernandez, 9/5); None Above the Law (Jeremy Laprida, 15-1), and Mixto (Kyle Frey, 12-1).
