DEL MAR — The Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Saturday, featuring a talented horse with something to prove, is an event for two kinds of racing fans.
Horse-watching purists can hope to see a star in the making in the biggest race run annually in California.
Horseplayers can hope to win money betting on the hot new thing – or hope to win more by betting against him.
Let’s try to be part of the “win more” crowd.
Before that, here’s the field for the Grade I Pacific Classic, which is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. as the 10th of 11 races on a card starting at 2 p.m.: 1. Om N Joy, jockey Kent Desormeaux, morning-line odds 20-1; 2. Forged Steel, Edwin Gonzalez, 5-1; 3. Finger, Keita Tosaki, 8-1; 4. Subsanador, Mike Smith, 12-1; 5. Malarchuk, Umberto Rispoli, 10-1; 6. Original Sin, Juan Hernandez, 15-1; 7. Hit Show, Florent Geroux, 6-1; 8. British Isles, Diego Herrera, 12-1; 9. Navajo Warrior, Micah Husbands, 8-1; 10. Full Serrano, Joel Rosario, 8-1; and 11. Knightsbridge, Junior Alvarado, 5-2 (favorite).
The horse to beat is Knightsbridge, a 5-year-old son of Nyquist owned by Godolphin, trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott and ridden by Alvarado, the team behind 2025 Kentucky Derby winner and Horse of the Year Sovereignty. Knightsbridge comes to California after the flashiest of his seven victories in 11 starts, a 10¼ -length runaway in the Grade III Monmouth Cup that received a Beyer speed figure of 122, the highest for any race since Flightline’s 126 in the 2022 Pacific Classic. If that rating is accurate – other commercial figures are a little less flattering – Knightsbridge is more than ready for the jump from Grade III to Grade I.
But Knightsbridge may be beatable. The question is if he’s capable of the jump from a career of mostly 7-furlong and 1-mile races, and the Monmouth Cup’s 1⅛ miles, to the Pacific Classic’s 1¼ miles. Especially when he probably won’t get the uncontested lead he enjoyed in New Jersey.
It isn’t hard to picture Knightsbridge finding the extra 220 yards a bridge too far. That’s partly because we’ve seen it happen to so many Pacific Classic favorites: In 35 runnings of the race, the people’s choice has been beaten 23 times (a normal rate). Result charts show that among those, 20 lost ground to the winner between the stretch call and the finish.
Who could take advantage if Knightsbridge, in racetrackese, gets late?
A wide-net list of possible upsetters might include 2025 Dubai World Cup winner Hit Show, Hollywood Gold Cup winner Forged Steel, the Japanese-bred 3-year-old Finger, million-dollar race winner Subsanador, 2024 Pacific Classic runner-up Full Serrano and fast-improving Navajo Warrior.
But the list narrows if you look for a horse who matches Knightsbridge for sharpness and could outkick the favorite.
The horse is Navajo Warrior.
A son of 5-year-old son of 2003 Pacific Classic winner and 1¼-mile track record holder Candy Ride, Navajo Warrior began his career in California with trainer Bob Baffert and Tim Yakteen, and won for the first time on the sixth try in a maiden-claiming mile at Del Mar. He got good under Yakteen, and then moved east to Saffie Joseph Jr. through an ownership change and kept getting better. His victory in the 1 3/16-mile Pimlico Special showed stamina, and his win in the Cornhusker Handicap at Prairie Meadows earned the second-best last-race Beyer (106) in the Pacific Classic field.
What makes him the horse to pounce on a tiring Knightsbridge is that, although Navajo Warrior led all the way in his wins in Maryland and Nebraska, he has rallied from as far back as seventh in earlier triumphs. Husbands, the Florida-based jockey who rode Joseph’s Eunomia to a 12-1 upset in the Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar earlier this month, can hope to position Navajo Warrior behind the Pacific Classic leaders, be in striking range at the top of the stretch and finish strongest.
It’s a race for odds-shoppers.
The 11 horses make this the biggest for the Pacific Classic since Game On Dude dominated a field of 12 in 2013. Finger, the Tokyo Derby winner, can’t be overlooked, although he’s not yet the equal of Japan’s Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Forever Young. Hit Show, Subsanador and Full Serrano have run races that would threaten here.
Knightsbridge doesn’t have to match that 122 speed figure to win, but his unproven stamina leaves enough doubt about what he’ll do Saturday to make him a poor risk at anything shorter than the 5-2 morning line listed by a Del Mar handicapper. Navajo Warrior, meanwhile, is a worthwhile risk at anything close to 8-1.
Put it this way: Knightsbridge is the likeliest winner. But at the expected odds, Navajo Warrior is the top choice.
The picks here: 1. Navajo Warrior, 2. Knightsbridge, 3. Finger, 4. Forged Steel.
Follow horse racing correspondent Kevin Modesti at X.com/KevinModesti.