A year ago Bob Baffert won the Pacific Classic and wasn’t even sure he was happy.
The horse that was “supposed” to win, Arrogate, instead finished second to his “other” horse, Collected.
“I feel like my older son got beat by my younger son. The older son is supposed to win,” Baffert said that day. “At least we got 1-2. They ran a great race.”
Could it happen again?
Baffert again will start two horses in Saturday’s 28th running of the $1-million Classic (it’s actually happened four straight years), with Dr. Dorr and Roman Rosso. Neither is anywhere close to Arrogate’s level, and neither will be expected to win Saturday. But while Roman Rosso will be making his first North American start for his South American owners, Dr. Dorr is owned by Baffert’s wife, Jill.
How awkward might it be if he wins with his “other” horse, the one not in the family? (Bob Baffert also bred the horse in a partnership.)
Then again, a win is a win, and another one would be Baffert’s sixth in the Classic, tying him with Bobby Frankel, another Hall of Fame trainer. Frankel won four straight from 1992-95, and added two more (both with Skimming) in 2000 and 2001.
The first of Baffert’s five came with General Challenge in 1999, and the trainer also won back-to-back with Richard’s Kid (2009-10) and with Game on Dude (2013) before last year. Only one other trainer in this year’s field has won the Classic — Doug O’Neill with Lava Man in 2006.
But neither Baffert nor O’Neill trains the morning-line favorite in the field of eight. That honor belongs to John Sadler (0-11 in the Classic), who will saddle Accelerate, a 5-year-old son of Lookin at Lucky trying to Game on Dude and Lava Man as the only horses to win the three biggest races for older horses in Southern California — Santa Anita Handicap, Gold Cup at Santa Anita and Pacific Classic — in the same year.
Accelerate, who will have a new jockey Saturday with Joel Rosario taking over for the injured Victor Espinoza, has had mostly good results at Del Mar. He won his first three races here, including a shocking upset of Arrogate in last year’s San Diego, but was third in the Pacific Classic and a disappointing ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.
The second choice, O’Neill’s Pavel, is the only other horse in the field (not counting Roman Rosso) with a Grade I victory, and the only one to have won a stakes race outside California. That came in the Stephen Foster Handicap on June 16 at Churchill Downs, although in his previous race he was a distant fourth to Accelerate in the Gold Cup. He was next-to-last in the Breeders’ Cup Classic last year in his only start at Del Mar.
Roman Rosso, listed as the third choice, won two Group I races in his native Argentina and another one in Uruguay. His most recent start was March 18 but he has been training regularly for Baffert, including four workouts at Del Mar, the last a 7-furlong move in 1:26 on Friday.
The draw was Tuesday afternoon, and here’s the entire field, in post-position order, with morning-line odds from track oddsmaker Russell Hudak:
1. The Lieutenant, Drayden Van Dyke, 6-1;
2. Dr. Dorr, Joe Talamo, 6-1;
3. Prime Attraction, Kent Desormeaux, 8-1;
4. Roman Rosso, Flavien Prat, 5-1;
5. Accelerate, Joel Rosario, 8-5;
6. Beach View, Rafael Bejarano, 15-1;
7. Pavel, Mario Gutierrez, 7-2;
8. Two Thirty Five, Franklin Ceballos, 20-1
The most unlikely horse in the field is Two Thirty Five, who ran his first eight races for claiming prices ranging from $50,000 all the way down to $16,000 before he eventually was claimed for $25,000 by trainer Richard Baltas on Jan. 15 at Santa Anita. The 4-year-old gelding won three of his next four races before Baltas gave him a stakes start last month in the San Diego Handicap, where he was fourth in a field of five.
Oddly enough, his first win came during Breeders’ Cup week last fall at Del Mar, but he was about as far from the big money as you could get — his win came in a $20,000 maiden claiming race, the lowest level offered at Del Mar.
He’s earned nearly $105,000 since Baltas claimed him; he can exceed that by finishing third Saturday ($120,000).
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