For the first time in eight years, the $1 million TVG Pacific Classic returns to dirt at Del Mar on Saturday, Aug. 22 for its 25th running.
\nFor those who revel in the fashion, festivities and spirit that embodies Opening Day, they will want to earmark this classic day of high caliber racing which features a three stakes race card, including the Pat O\u2019Brien Stakes and Del Mar Handicap.
\nThe competition stacks up high again this year with the two-time Eclipse Award-winning mare\u00a0Beholder\u00a0taking center stage to see if she can hold her own with the boys. After securing an easy victory against her own kind in the Clement L. Hirsh Stakes earlier in Del Mar\u2019s summer meeting, the 5-year-old mare trained by Richard Mandella will go up against the likes of\u00a0Bayern, winner of the 2014 Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic trained by Bob Baffert, and\u00a0Catch a Flight, the Argentine-bred 5-year-old who recently captured the San Diego Handicap during Del Mar\u2019s second weekend.
\nShould Beholder be good enough to take down her male rivals, she\u2019d become the first distaffer to earn Classic honors. Four other females have tried without any luck.
\nOther contenders for the $600,000 winner\u2019s prize include\u00a0Imperative, who was third in last year\u2019s Pacific Classic. He\u2019ll be joined by one more ace in\u00a0Hoppertunity,\u00a0another Baffert-trained horse who lost in a nail biting finish to\u00a0Hard Aces\u00a0in the Santa Anita Gold Cup in June. Additional top runners in the race are\u00a0Midnight Storm,\u00a0who showed an impressive win as a longshot last year in the Del Mar Derby and\u00a0Red Vine, a multiple winner and the 5-year-old son of 2003 Pacific Classic winner Candy Ride.
\nPacific Classic weekend begins Friday, Aug. 21, with a free live show by San Diego-based rockers Pepper, as part of\u00a0Del Mar\u2019s Summer Concert Series. Then Saturday, Aug. 22, breakfast is served as the sun rises alongside the track at\u00a0Daybreak at Del Mar, where guest can view the workouts and listen to insider commentary provided by Daybreak host Jeff Bloom. Additionally, families can enjoy a day of activities and racing together during\u00a0Family Weekends,\u00a0every Saturday and Sunday throughout the season where kids can enjoy free pony rides, face painting, and more for free.
\nGates open at 11:30 a.m. on Pacific Classic Day with first post at 2 p.m. The Pacific Classic will be the ninth of 11 races on the afternoon.
\nRacing at Del Mar happens Wednesdays through Sundays, with post time for the first race on most days at 2 p.m. On Fridays, first post is at 4 p.m. There will be a special Monday racing card on Labor Day, Sept. 7. For more information, call (858) 755-1141 or visit\u00a0www.delmarscene.com.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For the first time in eight years, the $1 million TVG Pacific Classic returns to dirt at Del Mar on Saturday, Aug. 22 for its 25th running. For those who revel in the fashion, festivities and spirit that embodies Opening Day, they will want to earmark this classic day of high caliber racing which features […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":274991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Beholder to take on the boys in the TVG Pacific Classic","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11551,11553],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}