GR I Pacific Classic

[TJ]

Here's the entries and PP's for the Pacific Classic. TJ

9th Race. (C10) The 25th Running of the Pacific Classic (Grade I)
Purse $1,000,000 Guaranteed One Mile And One Quarter
FOR THREE-YEAR-OLDS AND UPWARD.
1 CLASS LEADER (L) '11 C 124 Smith, M Lane's End Racing Sadler, John
2 BAILOUTBOBBY (L) '10 G 124 Graham, J Calara Farms, Great Friends Stable,TippyToe Racing, LLC, Steven Keh and R3 Racing O'Neill, Doug
3 BAYERN (L) '11 C 124 Bejarano, R Kaleem Shah, Inc. Baffert, Bob
4 HARD ACES (L) '10 H 124 Espinoza, V Hronis Racing, LLC Sadler, John
5 RED VINE (L) '10 H 124 Rosario, J Jon & Sarah Kelly Clement, Christophe
6 IMPERATIVE (L) '10 G 124 Nakatani, C KM Racing Enterprise, Inc. Baltas, Richard
7 CATCH A FLIGHT (ARG) (L) '10 H 124 Prat, F Haras Santa Maria de Araras, Inc. Mandella, Richard
8 HOPPERTUNITY (L) '11 C 124 Garcia, M Mike Pegram, Karl Watson or Paul Weitman Baffert, Bob
9 BEHOLDER (L) '10 M 119 Stevens, G Spendthrift Farm, LLC Mandella, Richard
10 MIDNIGHT STORM (L) '11 C 124 Baze, T A Venneri Racing or Dye or Little RedFeather Racing D'Amato,

Click on Hoppertunity: http://www.brisnet.com/cgi-bin/briswatc ... ummary.htm

[Cree]

I think Beholder can win this. She just has to sit off the pace and relax, something she has been doing wonderfully lately. Mandella wouldn't be running her if he thought Catch A Flight was going to beat her (that just wouldn't make sense, imo). I think the only horse that is a question mark for me is Red Vine. He has really improved of late, but I don't know if he is a G1 horse. Unless Bayern (the real Bayern) shows up, I think the mare is the best horse of the bunch.

Beholder
Red Vine
Catch A Flight

[TJ]

Bayern...he might finally be ready for a move forward. He just posted his first triple digit beyer in almost 10 months. When he shows a triple digit beyer in his form, he shows he repeats another in his following start.
Beholder...She loves the track, just not sure about the distance...but as Cree said, it makes no sense to run against Catch a Flight if her trainer wasn't sure she could beat him?
Hoppertunity...gets a break in the weights and is better then his recent races indicate.
Imperative...in new hands and training well off the layoff, could be a late pace factor at a price?

[Aug27]

The favorites are obvious, but what about Midnight Storm? He looks fast enough, the trainer excels with turf-to-dirt moves, out of a stallion that throws G1 dirt runners (like American Pharoah).
And I expect Red Vine to be tough, too, for Clement, with first time Joel Rosario. His speed figs are Grade 1 level.
Note that half the field shows bullet works since their last race: this ought to be one fantastic contest!

[TJ]

Excellent picks Cree...
Here's the finish:
Beholder....guess California has dibs on all the great race-mares.
Catch a Flight 2nd....like Cree said...Mandella knew she would beat him:>)
Red Vine
Hoppertunity

[Cree]

Wow.
She did even better than I thought she would do. A stellar performance. I just love that mare.

[hpkingjr]

[quote="Cree"

Beholder
Red Vine
Catch A Flight[/quote]
Thanks for the trifecta. Plus a couple of 10 cent supers

[Cree]

A side note to the stellar performance of Beholder today...Good grief. Is Bayern done? He has been terrible all year. His career has gone off the rails. What happened after the BC Classic? Is this him not getting on the front end and dictating the race, or has something happened to him physically?

[TJ]

A side note to the stellar performance of Beholder today...Good grief. Is Bayern done? He has been terrible all year. His career has gone off the rails. What happened after the BC Classic? Is this him not getting on the front end and dictating the race, or has something happened to him physically?

Hi Cree,
He has to have a problem...he looked like he might move forward yesterday after posting a good number in his previous race....but I think we might here about him retiring shortly? His regular rider, Martin Garcia didn't even take him over Hoppertunity yesterday. TJ

[TJ]

Here's the replay:
http://www1.drf.com/displayVideo.do?tra ... ountry=USA

[Cree]

She just blew by them on the turn. That was so impressive. I think credit should also go to Mandella for taking his time with her and keeping her racing after all this time.

Bayern just seems ruined to me.

[skeenan]

I'm bummed out about Bayern. For a little bit, it seemed he was starting to improve, and I thought he might be a late bloomer type. I've always liked him, too. Watching him in this race was downright depressing.

[geowarrior]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Bayern retired. He just seems to have lost his enthusiasm for the chase.

[TJ]

A side note to the stellar performance of Beholder today...Good grief. Is Bayern done? He has been terrible all year. His career has gone off the rails. What happened after the BC Classic? Is this him not getting on the front end and dictating the race, or has something happened to him physically?

Hi Cree,
He has to have a problem...he looked like he might move forward yesterday after posting a good number in his previous race....but I think we might here about him retiring shortly? His regular rider, Martin Garcia didn't even take him over Hoppertunity yesterday. TJ

Hi Cree,
Here's the end to the above conversation of ours...Bayern retired:>) TJ
http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/ ... le-in-2016

[Cree]

Hi TJ, it actually sounds like he is still in training. To Hill N Dale for 2016.