DEL MAR – The beginning of Pacific Classic week, which climaxes with the meeting's $1 million signature race Sunday, was signaled with a swift workout yesterday morning by one of the major contenders.
Hollywood Gold Cup winner Mast Track went six furlongs in 1:11.40 under exercise rider Jose Dominguez, with an interim fraction of :59.20 for five-eighths of a mile. The 4-year-old son of Mizzen Mast, whose preparation is being overseen by West Coast lieutenant Humberto Ascanio for Hall of Fame trainer Robert Frankel, galloped out seven furlongs in 1:24.20. Frankel is, as usual, in New York this summer with the New York branch of the stable.
“It was a very good work,” Ascanio told a Del Mar Thoroughbred Club official. “It may have been a little faster than (Frankel) wanted, but he did it nice. He's a naturally fast horse and he's a good horse.”
Another Frankel-trained possibility for the Classic, Out of Control, is scheduled for a final workout at Saratoga today and will ship here from New York tomorrow.
Frankel has a record six Pacific Classic wins – twice as many as second-place Richard Mandella – from 17 starters and has had representatives in 11 of the 17 previous runnings.
John Sadler, the meeting's leading trainer, sent out Pacific Classic probable Zappa (seven furlongs, 1:25.80) and possible Tissy Fit (seven furlongs, 1:27.2). Sadler has had only one previous Pacific Classic starter, Musique Toujours, which finished last in 2005.
In Pacific Classic jockey news, Joel Rosario was announced as the rider for Delosvientos instead of the previously indicated Eibar Coa, and assignments on the Frankel pair went to Rafael Bejarano (Mast Track) and Edgar Prado (Out of Control).
A field of 12 or 13 is expected when entries close and the post-position draw is held Wednesday.
Solana Beach Handicap
Alex Solis completed a sweep of Del Mar's weekend stakes races, guiding favored
America's Friend ($6.20) to a 1½-length victory in the $109,700 Solana Beach Handicap.
A day earlier, Solis took the $350,000 Del Mar Oaks on long shot Magical Fantasy. They were the first two stakes wins of the meeting for Solis and Nos. 90 and 91 overall here, sixth on the track's all-time list.
Trainer Barry Abrams, who had a 2-3 finish in the Oaks with Bel Air Sizzle and Lethal Heat, moved up a notch to 1-2 in the Solana Beach, Lightmyfirebaby chasing home America's Friend.
Bachelorette One was third, a length behind Lightmyfirebaby.
The winning time for the turf mile for the 4-year-old, California-bred daughter of Unusual Heat-Bel Air Belle was 1:32.98, a stakes record, eclipsing the 1:33.36 of Candy Factory in 2005. It was .77 seconds off the course record by the colt Three Valleys in 2005 and the fastest grass mile of the meeting.
Unhurried early, America's Friend moved up along the rail approaching the second turn and made a strong move between horses on the turn while being directed four paths wide turning into the stretch. Gaining the lead in midstretch, America's Friend kept to the task to the wire.
“At about the 5/16ths (pole) I asked her just a little and she took off,” Solis said. “She was ready.”
It was the first stakes victory for America's Friend, the third win in the past four starts and fourth career score. All have come since February, after an 0-for-15 career start.
“She's always been a really good worker in the morning, but she never ran well in the afternoon,” Abrams said. “This year she has made a turnaround.
“We gave her a little break and since she's come back she's been a real terror. It takes patience, that's the important thing. Once you get them to the races and have the patience to get them good, then you just run them.”
Jockey Club study
A Jockey Club panel will study whether the number of horses allowed into the Kentucky Derby poses a safety risk. The annual Run for the Roses at Churchill Downs regularly draws 20 horses to the race. Typically, other races are limited to just more than a dozen.
Stuart Janney, head of the Jockey Club's Thoroughbred Safety Committee, says the panel will be looking at the race's size.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
