DEL MAR, Calif. – If all three principals run their race, the 2025 edition of the Grade 1 Pacific Classic on Saturday at Del Mar could be one for the ages.
The 4-year-olds Nysos and Fierceness, and 3-year-old Journalism, meet for the first time, each with something to prove in the 1 1/4-mile, $1 million Pacific Classic.
The brilliant Nysos is 5 for 6 but untested beyond 1 1/16 miles. Journalism is 6 for 9 with three Grade 1s, but he has never faced older. Then there is New York shipper Fierceness, a 6-for-12 champion whose midpack finish as the favorite last out blurs his form.
Nysos and Journalism are listed 8-5 and 9-5, respectively. Fierceness is third choice at 3-1. Five others in the Pacific Classic field are double digits. None are impossible. All are up against it.
Midnight Mammoth, 12-1, won a Del Mar Grade 3 marathon by more than 10 lengths last year and ran second last out in a Grade 2 at Santa Anita. Indispensable, 15-1, won a fast Del Mar allowance last out. The 20-1 longshots are Ultimate Gamble, Lure Him In, and Tarantino. The race 10 Pacific Classic is a “Win and You’re In” for the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar on Nov. 1.
So, can the favorite Nysos stay a mile and a quarter? “They can all get a mile and a quarter with the right crew,” trainer Bob Baffert joked. “His distance limitations, we don’t know.”
Baffert does know Nysos has superior physical ability and a mind to match. “He’s got this brilliance about him,” Baffert said. “He’s quiet. He’s got a great mind. He walks into the paddock like a pony. He doesn’t use himself up.”
Nysos won Grade 2 San Diego Handicap last out at a mile and a sixteenth, after which Baffert tightened the screws. He worked him seven furlongs in company Aug. 16, and five days later Nysos blazed five furlongs by himself in 58.80.
“Now he’s ready for what we’re going to throw at him,” Baffert said. “We’re giving him every opportunity to be ready for it. That’s my job.” Baffert has won the Pacific Classic seven times.
Flavien Prat rides Nysos, who has more speed than Journalism. However, beating Journalism is easier said than done. Journalism, in his last eight starts, finished in front of all 14 Baffert runners he faced.
The only horse to defeat Journalism this year is Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner Sovereignty. Journalism finished second in both races. His Grade 1s include the Santa Anita Derby, Preakness, and Haskell. Journalism’s trainer Michael McCarthy acknowledged the class hike Saturday. “It would be nice to run against straight 3-year-olds,” he said.
But 3-year-olds are not at a disadvantage in the Pacific Classic, with a six-pound weight break (118 to 124). Since the 1991 inaugural Pacific Classic, 3-year-olds are 6 for 19. Umberto Rispoli rides Journalism, whose Aug. 23 work indicated his ambitious 2025 campaign has not taken any toll. He worked in 1:00, and galloped out a mile in 1:39.40 on McCarthy’s watch.
Journalism answers the bell every time. He has raced this year at five tracks in five states; he won his only Del Mar start last fall in a maiden race. And while Nysos is uncertain at 1 1/4 miles, Journalism has repeatedly shown the longer, the better.
Fierceness, the 2023 champion juvenile male and three-time Grade 1 winner, shipped Wednesday from Saratoga. He misfired last out in the Grade 1 Whitney, a race that did not set up well according to trainer Todd Pletcher.
“Some minor things during the course of the race weren’t perfect,” Pletcher said. “Kind of got stuck out wide on the first turn, got a little aggressive when the pacesetter buzzed him on the outside, had to avoid a horse stopping in front of him on the far turn, and ultimately got to the lead a little sooner than [jockey John Velazquez] wanted to.”
Fierceness finished fifth, beaten less than six lengths. “He’s come back and trained lights-out,” Pletcher said. “We felt like we wanted his final prep for the Breeders’ Cup Classic to be this weekend instead of Sept. 27” in the Grade 2 Woodward at Aqueduct.
The main track at Del Mar has played fast recently, which benefits Fierceness, runner-up in the BC Classic at Del Mar last fall. Velazquez retains the mount Saturday.
An upset candidate is Indispensable, trained by John Sadler. “He showed an affinity for this track,” Sadler said, referring to two fast races last summer and a fast allowance win last month.
“I know he only won a non-winners of one, but he ran a very good number again,” Sadler said.
Indispensable will need higher than his last-out 95 Beyer Speed Figure to win Saturday. Sadler, who has won the Pacific Classic four times in seven years, expects late-runner Indispensable to improve third start back under jockey Paco Lopez.
Indispensable “has the right spacing. We think that distance is going to be good for him.” Sadler said. “He’s kind of a grinder. It’s really about class. Can he step up with those proven classier horses?”
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