Saturday’s Pacific Classic provides Del Mar with stellar field

One of the beauties of horse racing as a sport is to be a champion one must beat champions. You cannot duck challenges. The end of year Eclipse Awards are so coveted because it is hard earned.

On Saturday at Del Mar, the $1-million Pacific Classic will have the best handicap field of older horses this side of the Breeders’ Cup Classic. California Chrome (8-5), the 2014 Kentucky Derby winner, is favored over the likes of Dortmund (5-2) and defending Pacific Classic winner Beholder (3-1).

California Chrome beat Dortmund by a half-length in a thrilling edition of the San Diego Handicap. It was their own personal duel as it was more than 7-lengths back to the third place finisher Win the Space (15-1).

Now you add in the mare Beholder coming in off an upset loss in the Clement L. Hirsch to Stellar Wind and you have the ingredients for a masterpiece of a horse race. It is very sporting of owner B. Wayne Hughes and trainer Richard Mandella to run in this difficult spot off a loss.

The fact is Beholder ran a winning race in defeat in the Hirsch. Her nemesis Stellar Wind is no slouch. She ran second in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff last year at Keeneland.

It would be too simplistic to think this is a three horse race. There is danger lurking in the likes of Hoppertunity (8-1) and Hard Aces (15-1) who on their best day can run a huge speed figure.

In handicapping the Pacific Classic, you need to accurately guess the jockey strategy. I’m not concerned about the post positions. In a 1 ¼ mile race at Del Mar, the starting gate is in a chute at the top of the stretch. There is a quarter of a mile run to the first turn, plenty of time for the jockeys to get the position they want.

A more basic question is who wants the early lead and then the rest will fall in line behind that leader. My guess is Dortmund will go to the front for trainer Bob Baffert and jockey Rafael Bejarano.

Dortmund is a monstrous horse at 17 hands and more than 1,300 pounds. You don’t really want to put an animal like that behind horses or in traffic. Plus Baffert has an uncoupled entry in Hoppertunity whose better races come from well off the pace.

Both California Chrome and Beholder are tractable with a preference to stalk the pace. Victor Espinosa has ridden California Chrome in all of his races except his debut. He has learned that his horse likes to run outside of others, not on the inside where he will start in post 1.

Gary Stevens had a problem of too many riches in the Pacific Classic. He is the regular rider of both Beholder and Dortmund, but chose Beholder for this race. Stevens is a master technician and I can see him sitting second or third just off the flank of Dortmund.

My pick is Beholder to upset in the Pacific Classic. If there is such a thing as using a grade 1 race to prep for another grade 1, we may have seen that with this mare. I will go with Beholder, California Chrome, Hoppertunity and Dortmund.

Richard Eng’s horse racing column is published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. You can buy his Del Mar picks at www.racedaylasvegas.com. You can email him at rich_eng@hotmail.com and follow him on Twitter @richeng4propick