San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
PEREIRA DRIVES TRIPOLI HOME ON TOP
Pacific Classic win is jockey’s fourth of entire Del Mar meet
Tiago Pereira opened the Del Mar racing season losing his first 48 races.
He entered Saturday with three wins to tie for 17th in the jockey standings. And it’s been a great year. Pereira’s fortunes took a huge jump forward Saturday as he rode Tripoli to a 1¼length victory over Flavien Prat and Tizamagician in the $1 million TVG Pacific Classic — giving trainer John Sadler a third win in Del Mar’s premier race over the last four years.
“I am so happy,” said Pereira. “This was my only mount today, so I was really focused.”
Tripoli ($15), who finished second to Pacific Classic favorite Express Train in the Grade II San Diego Handicap on July 17, was first out of the gate and stayed in third just off the leading pace of Tizamagician for the first mile of the 1¼-mile Grade I race on Del Mar’s main track.
At the top of the stretch, Pereira moved Tripoli to the outside of Tizamagician and held off Prat and the Richard Mandella-trained winner of the July 18 Cougar II stakes.
“Tripoli looked good all the way,” said Sadler, who also won the 2018 Pacific Classic with Accelerate and won again in 2019 with Higher Power.
“He broke on his feet (from the inside post) so Tiago was able to tuck him in there. He looked comfortable all the way around. He had a perfect trip. Give the rider a lot of credit. He rode him perfectly. It was a great day.”
For Del Mar as well as Pereira, Sadler and Tripoli.
Del Mar’s handle for the day was a record $36,005,612.90 — more than $9 million above the old nonbreeders’ Cup record handle of $25,870,431 set on Pacific Classic day in 2018. And the total Pick 6 pool was $10,751,768 with $8,876,771 coming in Saturday. A total of 882 tickets had all six winners and paid $10,521.50 each.
Pereira admitted after the race that it got antsy in the stretch.
“Once we got in front, Tripoli started looking around,” said the jockey. “I think he was waiting for other horses. I looked around, too, and knew that we were not going to be caught.
“When it was time to run today, I had plenty of horse.
Sadler told me before the race to be careful, because a lot of horses in the race had a similar style of running. So I was OK with running behind the leaders.”
The winner picked up a check for $600,000, raising his career earnings to $811,960. This was his fourth win in his 14th start and his first victory in stakes company. He ran the mile-and-one-quarter in 2:02.37.
The four favorites fared poorly.
Dr Post, who was shipped in for the Pacific Classic, finished third. Express Train was sixth. Royal Ship was seventh.
“Yeah, he ran a strange race today,” jockey Joel Rosario said of Dr Post, who was last after the first mile. “He kind of lost interest on the backstretch, so I thought I had no horse. But when I wheeled him outside, he gave me a strong finish. I don’t know how to explain it.”
Although Prat chased the winner home in the Pacific Classic, Del Mar’s leading jockey won three of the Saturday’s five stakes races, topped by claiming the $300,000 Grade I Del Mar Oaks aboard Going Global ($4.80).