Pacific Classic: Field, odds for $1 million race with Nysos 8-5

Even though he is lightly raced and lost in his only Grade 1 try, Bob Baffert-trained Nysos was made the 8-5 favorite against Journalism, Fierceness and five other horses racing Saturday in the 35th running of the Grade 1, $1 million Pacific Classic on Saturday at Del Mar.

Nysos, a 4-year-old Nyquist colt owned by Baoma Corp, drew post 4. Only a neck loss to Mindframe in the Churchill Downs (G1) on Kentucky Derby day has blemished Nysos’s six-race record. His four graded-stakes wins have come in California, including last out as the 1-10 favorite in the 1 1/16-mile San Diego Handicap (G2).

Fair odds: There is a clear choice in the Pacific Classic.

Flavien Prat rides again Saturday as Nysos takes his second shot against Grade 1 company.

Three-time Grade 1 winner Journalism gets his first chance to venture away from 3-year-olds and to counterpunch the 10-length Travers (G1) victory of division leader Sovereignty as they build up to their inevitable rematch in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Like the $7 million target Nov. 1, the Pacific Classic will be run at 1 1/4 miles on the main track at Del Mar. Lead owner Aron Wellman of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and trainer Michael McCarthy said they were looking forward to Journalism finally playing a home game. Their colt by Curlin has earned most of his $3,798,880 winning the Preakness and Haskell and finishing second to Sovereignty in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, all on the other side of the country. As usual Umberto Rispoli will ride Journalism.

Mike Repole owns and Todd Pletcher trains Fierceness, the up-and-down Eclipse Award winner who finished fifth Aug. 2 in the Whitney (G1) at his Saratoga home base. The 4-year-old City of Light colt who has earned $4,555,320 drew post 1 and carries 3-1 morning-line odds. Between winning last year’s Travers and disappointing as this year’s Whitney favorite, Fierceness finished second at Del Mar in the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Classic, won the Alysheba (G1) on the Kentucky Oaks undercard and finished second to Raging Torrent in the Met Mile (G1). John Velázquez will be partnered again with Fierceness.

Four-year-old Indispensable (15-1) and 5-year-old Ultimate Gamble (20-1), both allowance winners, also were entered as were older geldings Midnight Mammoth (12-1), Lure Him In (20-1) and Tarantino (20-1).

The Pacific Classic at about 9 p.m. EDT will be the 10th of 11 races Saturday at Del Mar. The first post is at 4:30 p.m.