Pacific Classic Horse Race

There are plenty of horses with plenty to prove in today's Pacific Classic, the signature race of the summer at Del Mar. There is Giacomo, the longshot who won the 2005 Kentucky Derby but didn't win again until last month, raising hopes he might finish his racing career with a flourish. There is Perfect Drift, who has earned more than $4.5 million but is famous mostly for finishing second, as he has in the last two Pacific Classics. He's trying to win for the first time in more than a year.

Two years after Lava Man was claimed at Del Mar for 50 grand, he returned and pulled off his grandest feat yet, winning the $1-million Pacific Classic with a flourish Sunday to become the first horse to sweep the Santa Anita Handicap, the Hollywood Gold Cup and the Pacific Classic in the same year.

Ron Ellis was a high school football player growing up in the San Fernando Valley in the 1970s when he discovered a passion for horse racing. At 15, a friend's father took him to Santa Anita, showed him how to read the Daily Racing Form, and Ellis was hooked. The next year, he worked on weekends for trainer Larry Sterling and spent the whole summer at Del Mar. By the time he graduated from Monroe High in 1977, he persuaded his parents to let him take a year off from attending college to focus on horse racing.

A dollar here, a dollar there, they add up. So Borrego, with the won-lost record of a ne'er-do-well, has the bankroll of a plutocrat. His owners hardly ever go home with a trophy, but usually with a check. If the 4-year-old colt runs true to form Sunday in the $1-million Pacific Classic, he will hit the board but won't get to the finish line first. Borrego, with three wins, six seconds and two thirds, has earned $852,090.

Last year, when he won the Pacific Classic for the first time, trainer Ron McAnally's horse was Candy Ride, who was undefeated, had only three horses to beat and was a 2-1 second choice. Sunday, for the 14th running of the Classic, McAnally will saddle El Elogiado, who has never won a race in the U.S. and is 30-1 on the morning line. Seemingly the only thing these two horses have in common is that they were bred in Argentina. "It won't be as easy this time," McAnally said Wednesday morning.

One of the happiest people after Pleasantly Perfect's one-length win Sunday in the $1-million Pacific Classic was on the periphery of the winner's-circle celebration. He was just 5 feet 3, wearing a neck and back stabilizer. Alex Solis has ridden Pleasantly Perfect to some of his biggest wins -- Breeders' Cup and Dubai included -- but he's on the sidelines now, the result of a spill that fractured a vertebrae and a few ribs on July 23.

The past couple of days have not been kind to Bobby Frankel. The country's leading trainer in terms of earnings and Grade I victories, Frankel first had to scratch Belmont Stakes winner Empire Maker from Saturday's $1-million Travers because of illness, then Wild Spirit, the 1-5 favorite in Friday's $400,000 Personal Ensign Handicap at Saratoga, was beaten by a nose by 11-1 outsider Passing Shot. And Frankel's Peace Rules was defeated by Ten Most Wanted in the Travers.

Fourteen races and 22 months ago, Corey Nakatani was Gentlemen's regular rider. He's being reunited with the Argentine-bred for today's $1-million Pacific Classic at Del Mar. In the interim, Gentlemen, ridden in all but one of his races by Gary Stevens, has won seven of 11 starts and earned about $2.6 million.

Well, it was a slam dunk for Free House, a "Where is everybody?" win. The bridesmaid finally caught the bouquet. The "best friend" got the girl in the Warner Bros. movie for a change. The sidekick saves the fort. Free House just won't fold the hand. Three times last year, in the most publicized races in the sport, he chased his competition across the finish line in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont.

The long-term future for Silver Charm is unclear, but the short term is definite: There'll be no $1-million Pacific Classic for the 4-year-old colt. In the aftermath of his implausible last-place finish Saturday in the $250,500 San Diego Handicap, Silver Charm was checked over Sunday at the barn and his veterinarian, Vince Baker, could offer no physical explanation for the defeat of the 3-10 favorite.