Pacific Classic: Learn history behind Del Mar's flagship race

Del Mar’s pièce de résistance – its race of races – comes up next Saturday. This will be the 36th edition of the Grade 1 Pacific Classic and it has some history to go with it now. Here are a series of short takes on the 1 1/4-mile, $1-million beauty.

The late John Mabee, one of the founders of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, was the driving force behind the establishment of the Pacific Classic. He pushed for his track to have a premier race and he got it. Then, fittingly perhaps, he won the first edition of the race in 1991 with his 3-year-old ace Best Pal.

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Flightline, the 2022 Horse of the Year, registered two remarkable marks in the Pacific Classic that year. He went off at the shortest winning price the race has ever seen, 3-10 (paid $2.60), and finished in front by an eye-catching 19-1/4 lengths, despite being eased from the eighth pole home by Flavien Prat. 

Of the 35 winners so far in the Pacific Classic, only one of them has been a gray or roan. That would be Free House in 1998.

Three horses have given the Pacific Classic a go on four different occasions: Awesome Gem (2007, ’08, 09, ’10); Richard’s Kid (2009, ’10, ’12, ’13), and Game On Dude (2011, ’12, ’13, ’14). Richard’s Kid won it in ’09 and ’10, while Game On Dude did, too, in 2013. 

Early on, the late Hall of Fame trainer Robert Frankel won six of the first 11 runnings of the Pacific Classic. There was talk of renaming it the Frankel Classic. Tough to beat, you say. True, unless you are a Hall of Fame trainer, too, named Bob Baffert who has won seven editions of the race. 

Six female racehorses have taken on the boys in the Pacific Classic over the years. One has won – and she did it in style. The champion racemare Beholder captured the 2015 edition by a galloping 8 1/4 lengths. 

Seven horses bred in California have won the Pacific Classic, the most recent being California Chrome in 2016. Not surprisingly, Kentucky has produced the most winners at 22. 

The shortest priced favorite not to win the Pacific Classic was Cigar who came to Del Mar in 1996 riding a 16-race winning streak. Win and he sets a new North American record for consecutive top-level victories. He went off at 1-9 in a six-horse field and got locked in a pace duel that would leave the future Hall of Famer out of gas in the lane and unable to hold off the closing charge of Dare And Go.

Dare And Go’s victory in the 1996 Pacific Classic is still the longest priced winner of the race. Trained by Richard Mandella, the son of Alydar went off at 39-1 and paid $81.20.

The longest priced runner was Ayrton in 1998. He went off at 185-1 and finished a distant eighth behind Free House.

The fastest running of the Pacific Classic was by Candy Ride in 2003. Owned by Sydney and Jenny Craig and trained by Ron McAnally, he completed the 1 1/4 miles in 1:59.11. Del Mar ran its races on the polytrack for eight years between 2007 and 2014. Dullahan holds the record for the fastest Pacific Classic on the synthetic track, stopping the clock at 1:59.54 in 2012.

The slowest Pacific Classic was run on the polytrack the first year it was in used in 2007. Student Council, a 23-1 long shot trained by Vladimir Cerin and ridden by Richard Migliore, got home in 2:07.29. Higher Power holds the mark for the slowest Classic on dirt. Trained by John Sadler and ridden by Flavien Prat, the son of Medaglia d’Oro posted a final time of 2:02.43 in 2019.

The closest finish in Pacific Classic history was Acclamation’s wire-to-wire win in 2011. The Cal-bred held off the late charge by Twirling Candy to score by a head with jockey Patrick Valenzuela in the irons.

Two Pacific Classic winners were bred in Argentina: Candy Ride in 2003 and Gentlemen, a Richard Mandella trainee ridden by Gary Stevens. He won it in 1997. Only one England-bred has ever taken Del Mar’s marquee race: Missionary Ridge with Kent Desormeaux in the irons pulled it off in just the second running in 1992. 

Only one Florida-bred has ever crossed the finish line first in the Pacific Classic. That was Go Between in 2008. Trainer Bill Mott shipped him in and Garrett Gomez rode him to victory. 

Only one Maryland-bred captured the race and he did it twice. Bob Baffert’s Richard’s Kid won it in 2009 and 2010 with Mike Smith in the irons both times.

Other than Richard's Kid, only two other horses have ever pulled off back-to-back Pacific Classic wins: Tinners Way was the first in 1994 and 1995. Skimming did it in 2000 and 2001. Both of those horses were trained by Robert Frankel.

No horse older than 6 years of age has ever won the Pacific Classic. Pleasantly Perfect and Game On Dude head up the senior class of Classic winners. They were both 6 when they captured the $1 million race. Twelve winners have been 5-year-olds when they won; 15 were 4-year-olds.

Anyone who says 3-year-olds are too young to be trying the Pacific Classic should take note. Seventeen 3-year-olds have given the Classic a shot, six have won. They are Best Pal (1991); General Challenge (1999); Came Home (2002); Dullahan (2012); Shared Belief (2014), and Arabian Knight (2023).

If you’re one of those handicappers who picks their horses by color, 13 chestnuts have won the Pacific Classic; 14 winners have been bays and seven have been dark bay or brown. One, as noted previously, was gray or roan.

The largest field to ever break from the gate in a Pacific Classic was 14 in 2002. The smallest field was four the year Candy Ride won (2003). The average field size through the 35 runnings is 8.5.

The highest on-track attendance mark was for Cigar’s appearance in 1996: 44,181 packed the grandstand that day to catch a glimpse of America’s favorite horse. 

The highest total handle for a Pacific Classic was collected in 2021 when $36,024,030 was bet on the race won by the John Sadler trained Tripoli

The winningest owner in Pacific Classic history is the Juddmonte Farm of the late Prince Khalid bin Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who took down honors four different times.