Harmonize © Zoe Metz for Del Mar Thoroughbred Club
Two of Del Mar’s most historic stakes events – the Grade I $300,000 Del Mar Oaks for three-year-old fillies and the Grade II $250,000 Del Mar Handicap for older horses – will feature an outstanding undercard Saturday on the day of the Grade I $1 million TVG Pacific Classic.
Eleven talented fillies are entered in the 60th running of the Del Mar Oaks at nine furlongs over the infield Jimmy Durante Turf Course, slated as the sixth race, while the 77th edition of the Del Mar Handicap, also on the grass, at the marathon distance of a mile and three-eighths, drew a dozen well-credentialed runners in the eighth race of an 11-race program.
Post-time for the first event Saturday is 2 p.m., with the Pacific Classic as the ninth race matching a brilliant line-up topped by North America’s all-time leading money-winner California Chrome; the great mare Beholder, defending champion in the mile and one-quarter test, and the formidable Dortmund.
Scheduled to clash in the Del Mar Oaks are Lady Valeur, Decked Out, Mokat, Mines and Magic, Barleysugar, Lynne’s Legacy, Harmonize, Cheekabo, Mrs. Norris, Stays in Vegas and Tin Type Gal. Invaders from the East Coast are Mines and Magic for trainer Vickie Oliver, Harmonize for trainer Bill Mott and Tin Type Gal from the barn of Graham Motion. Heading the “home” contingent will be Mokat, winner of the San Clemente Handicap, and Sandy Blue winner Barleysugar.
The Del Mar Handicap, presented by the Japan Racing Association, will match distance-loving older Thoroughbreds seeking to ensure a berth in the $4 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita Nov. 5 since the race is a “Win and You’re In” qualifier.
Entrants in what shapes up as a wide-open affair are Belisarius, Quick Casablanca, Wanstead Gardens, Metaboss, Power Foot, Express Himself, Flaboyant, Ashleyluvssugar, Finnegans Wake, El Huerfano, Patentar and Texas Ryano. Ashleyluvssugar, runner-up to Big John B a year ago in the Del Mar ‘Cap, comes into this year’s renewal in sharp form, narrowly beaten in the Eddie Read Stakes July 17.