DEL MAR — A little after 6 p.m. Saturday, a horse at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club will earn a line in the racing history books by staring down a new challenge and scoring a career-defining victory in the Pacific Classic.
It just won’t be Adare Manor, the mare whose good chance of defeating male opponents had stirred anticipation for the $1 million race.
Trainer Bob Baffert said Friday morning that he decided to scratch Adare Manor from the Pacific Classic after she displayed a physical problem.
“She tied up after galloping yesterday, and she’s still a little tight today,” Baffert said by phone. “She can’t be even a little off her game in a big race like this.”
Tying up means the horse experienced uncomfortable muscle contractions or cramping following exercise.
“It’s disappointing, but it happens,” Baffert said.
Adare Manor, a 5-year-old daughter of Uncle Mo who has three Grade I victories among 10 wins in 18 career starts, all against fellow fillies and mares and mostly in California, had been a 9-5 favorite on the morning line. She could have become the second female to win the Pacific Classic, matching Beholder’s achievement in 2015.
Without her, Dr. Venkman is an 8-5 favorite on the revised line for the eight-horse race for 3-year-olds and up. He’s followed by 3-1 Il Miracolo, 5-1 Reincarnate, 6-1 Katonah, 8-1 Full Serrano, 10-1 There Goes Harvard, 15-1 Mixto and 20-1 None Above the Law.
“(Adare Manor) brought a lot to the race,” said Mark Glatt, trainer of Dr. Venkman. “I was pretty confident in my horse whether she was running or not. Now we’ll see.”
In another revision, Juan Hernandez, who was to have ridden Adare Manor, will replace Kazushi Kimura aboard Reincarnate after Baffert received permission from the Del Mar stewards to put his first-call jockey aboard the trainer’s remaining Pacific Classic runner. Hernandez hasn’t won the Pacific Classic in four tries. Baffert has won it a record seven times, including last year with Arabian Knight.
It’s unlikely any of these horses will do something Saturday as meaningful as Adare Manor could have done.
But one of them can settle for winning the most prestigious event of the year at a great American racetrack.
There Goes Harvard is the only horse remaining in the race who has won at the Grade I level or at this 1 1/4-mile distance. The Michael McCarthy-trained 6-year-old did both in the 2022 Hollywood Gold Cup at Santa Anita in 2022 and is winless in all races since.
Dr. Venkman and Il Miracolo are the only remaining horses who’ve won a graded race this year, the former doing it last time out in the Grade II San Diego Handicap, the traditional local prep for the Pacific Classic, the latter doing it three starts back in the Grade III Ghostzapper Stakes in Florida.
If Dr. Venkman wins with jockey Antonio Fresu, it will be an accomplishment for trainer Mark Glatt to have stretched out the 4-year-old gelding sired Ghostzapper from a 7-furlong race in June to the 1 1/16-mile San Diego in July and to the 1 1/4-mile Pacific Classic in August.
“He’ll have to be on his ‘A’ game, and show at least one big thing that he hasn’t yet,” Glatt said. “When they’re good horses, it makes trainers’ jobs a lot easier. He’s obviously a very good horse. May turn into an exceptional horse.”
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Others who now rate as stronger contenders are Reincarnate, who has been earning shares of purses in big races; Il Miracolo, the lone East Coast invader in a diminished season for California older males; Katonah, a close second to Dr. Venkman in the San Diego, and Full Serrano, an Argentine horse who showed high speed in his U.S. debut for four-time Pacific Classic-winning trainer John Sadler.
The Pacific Classic is the 10th of 11 races on a card that features four other stakes. The morning lines favor defending champions Gold Phoenix (5-2) in the $300,000, Grade II Del Mar Handicap; Du Jour (8-5) in the $300,000, Grade II Del Mar Mile; and Motorious (7-2) in the $150,000, Grade III Green Flash.
First post is 1:30 p.m.