Pacific Classic

The Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance will be at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club for Pacific Classic Day Saturday, Sept. 2. They will be honored with a named race on the card and, following the running of the race, a presentation will be made to the winning connections including a TAA-branded blanket sponsored by Fenwick Equestrian and a TAA swag bag. "We are thrilled to partner with Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance and enhance the Pacific Classic Day experience for our guests," said Josh Rubinstein, President, Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. "By merging the thrill...

Trainer Kenny McPeek confirmed Lucky Seven Stable's Smile Happy (Runhappy) for next Saturday's GI Whitney S. at Saratoga Race Course, but his stablemate for the same owner, Rattle N Roll (Connect), will take his show on the road. Both horses last raced in the GI Stephen Foster S. July 1 at Ellis Park. McPeek said Rattle N Roll will target either the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga or the GI Pacific Classic at Del Mar. Both races are run at 10 furlongs September 2 and are "Win and...

Pin Oak Stud's Geaux Rocket Ride (Candy Ride {Arg}) exited his victory in the GI TVG.com Haskell S. in good order, trainer Richard Mandella reported Sunday. The victory earned the lightly raced colt an automatic berth in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic and Mandella said he has several routes to consider to get to that Nov. 4 race at Santa Anita. The Sept. 23 GI Pennsylvania Derby at Parx, the Sept. 2 GI Pacific Classic at Del Mar and the Sept. 30 GI Awesome Again S. at Santa Anita are...

After watching her undefeated homebred sensation Flightline (Tapit) demolish the GI TVG Pacific Classic field by 19 1/4 lengths Saturday, Jane Lyon was in just as much awe as the rest of the racing world. "It was unbelievable," Lyon said. "The fact that I bred him almost doesn't come into my mind. I don't take credit for any of that because I think a horse like this is a gift. After not running until a very late 3-year-old, he is just seems like he is getting better every day and...

Following Flightline (Tapit)'s jaw-dropping victory in the GI Pacific Classic at Del Mar Saturday, breeder Jane Lyon of Summer Wind Farm has decided to withdraw the star colt's half-brother by Curlin from next week's Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The yearling, who is named Eagles Flight, had been catalogued as hip 243 with the Lane's End consignment. "I had a feeling when Flightline did what he did [in the Pacific Classic] that it was going to be pretty hard for her to part with him," said Lane's End's Bill Farish, confirming...

Was Flightline's Pacific Classic the best performance since Secretariat's Belmont (as Bill Finley asked in The Week in Review in Monday's TDN)? Although it was great, the obvious answer is no, because we have witnessed many incredible races over the last nearly 50 years. But comparing and contrasting racehorses (and their best performances), and wondering how they stack up against each other, is part of what makes horse racing exciting and interesting. Secretariat's stupendous effort in the last leg of the Triple Crown was very likely the best performance by...

Trainer John Sadler said superstar Flightline (Tapit) came out of his devastating 19 1/4-length romp in Saturday's GI TVG Pacific Classic in good order. "We're literally talking 14 hours [since the race] but this early, he looks perfect," Sadler said. For Sadler, the most impressive aspect of Flightline's record rout was the way he opened up on the rest of the field. "Obviously, I was thrilled about him putting them away on the [far] turn," Sadler says. "That was really exciting, probably the most fun part. I was just so...

The Week in Review, by Bill Finley Some more thoughts on Flightline (Tapit) while trying to come up with the right superlative to describe his win in the GI TVG Pacific Classic. Words like spectacular, stunning, sensational just don't seem good enough. (*) It's tempting to try to compare him to Secretariat. The thing is, that's simply impossible. One has run just five times, the other ran 21 times, won the Triple Crown, was a two-time Horse of the Year and had his picture on the covers of Time, Newsweek...

The $1-million question heading into Saturday's 'Win and You're In' GI TVG Pacific Classic was if unbeaten superstar Flightline (Tapit) could handle the 1 1/4-mile Classic distance. Here's a scary thought: he may be even better going longer. Stopping the timer just .17 seconds off Candy Ride (Arg)'s track record for 10 furlongs established in the 2003 renewal, the dominating last out GI Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan H. winner absolutely crushed his five rivals by a geared-down record margin of 19 1/4 lengths--yes, you read that correctly--in a performance for...

Four years ago on the eve of the GI TVG Pacific Classic, the hunt for the heavy favorite amid the lettered labyrinth of Del Mar's backstretch ended at Barn J. The stall, of course, belonged to Accelerate (Lookin At Lucky), a sleek, shiny copper penny of a colt, who carried weighty expectations that this was the year his trainer, John Sadler, would finally shrug off the voodoo that had cursed his previous attempts at the coveted prize. It was also viewed as a new high altitude for a horse whose...

The race is not always to the swift. Pretty old news, by this stage: it's right there in Ecclesiastes and, nearly as long ago now, you could see as much when More Than Ready cut the last corner in the Kentucky Derby. He transparently didn't get home, flattening into fourth behind Fusaichi Pegasus. But the brilliance of that move was instead sustained through his second career, where he just kept on going--whether measured by years, or air miles--and proved a far more potent force than the rest of that Derby...

Business is booming at Taylor Made, not just because of the company's continued status as the largest sales consignor in the country, but also on the stallion side with the continued ascent of their young star sire Not This Time. Tuesday, Taylor Made CEO joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland as the Green Group Guest of the Week to talk about Not This Time's newest Grade I winner in Runhappy Travers S. romper Epicenter, his team's approach to yearling sales and more. "You can never predict that a...