Tripoli, Mishriff Join Top 10 In Breeders’ Cup Classic Rankings

Knicks Go, winner of the Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) and the Whitney (G1), stayed atop the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic Rankings, while two of last week's Breeders' Cup Challenge Series winners, Tripoli and Mishriff (IRE), moved into the top 10. The Longines Breeders' Cup Classic Rankings is a weekly poll of the top 10 horses in contention for the $6 million Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1). This year's Longines Breeders' Cup Classic will be run at Del Mar racetrack in Del Mar, California, on Nov. 6 as the final race of the 38th Breeders' Cup World Championships.

The 5-year-old Knicks Go, owned by Korea Racing Authority and trained by Brad Cox, received 307 votes, maintaining the top spot for the third consecutive week. Godolphin's 3-year-old Essential Quality, winner of the Belmont Stakes (G1) and Jim Dandy Stakes (G2), is in second place with 273 votes. Also trained by Cox, Essential Quality is expected to run in this Saturday's Runhappy Travers Stakes (G1) at Saratoga.

The 4-year-old Maxfield, also owned by Godolphin, is in third place with 254 votes. Trained by Brendan Walsh, Maxfield earned a free berth into the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic when he won the Stephen Foster Stakes (G2) at Churchill Downs in June.

Three-year-old Hot Rod Charlie, owned by Boat Racing, Gainesway Stable, Roadrunner Racing and William Strauss, and trained by Doug O'Neill, is in fourth place with 204 votes.

Hronis Racing's 4-year-old Tripoli jumped into the top 10 for the first time off a sparkling win in the TVG Pacific Classic (G1) at Del Mar. The victory gave Tripoli an automatic berth into the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic. Trained by John Sadler, Tripoli is in fifth place with 125 votes.

St. George Stable's 5-year-old mare Letruska dropped one spot to sixth place with 107 votes. Letruska, trained by Fausto Gutierrez, has won four of five starts this year, including the Ogden Phipps (G1) at Belmont Park and the Fleur de Lis Stakes (G2) at Churchill Downs.

Prince A A Faisal's 4-year-old Mishriff was another “Win and You're In” qualifier for the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic last week when he captured the Juddmonte International (G1) on turf at York Racecourse in England. Trained by John and Thady Gosden, Mishriff, who is in seventh place with 95 votes, also won the Saudi Cup (G1) and the Longines Dubai Sheema Classic (G1) this year.

Winchell Thoroughbreds and Willis Horton Racing's 4-year-old Silver State slipped two spots, from sixth to eighth place, with 70 votes. Trained by Steve Asmussen, Silver State won his first four races of 2021 before finishing third in the Whitney. George E.

Hall and SportBLX Thoroughbreds Corp.'s 4-year-old Max Player, also trained by Asmussen, dropped from eighth to ninth place with 63 votes. Max Player won the Suburban Stakes (G2) at Belmont Park in July.

Another runner moving into the top 10 for the first time is the undefeated 3-year-old Life Is Good. Owned by CHC Inc and WinStar Farm, Life Is Good won both the Sham Stakes (G3) and the San Felipe Stakes (G2) before being sidelined with an ankle injury in the spring. Now back in training, Life Is Good is in 10th place with 58 votes.

Longines Breeders' Cup Classic Rankings – Aug. 24, 2021*

Rank Horse Votes First-Place Votes Previous Week
1 Knicks Go 307 20 1
2 Essential Quality 273 5 2
3 Maxfield 254 4 3
4 Hot Rod Charlie 204 1 4
5 Tripoli 125 0 0
6 Letruska 107 0 5
7 Mishriff (IRE) 95 3 17
8 Silver State 70 0 6
9 Max Player 63 0 8
10 Life Is Good 58 0 13

*Note – The Longines Breeders' Cup Classic Rankings have no bearing on qualification or selection into the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic.

The 2021 Longines Breeders' Cup Classic, which will be run at 1 ¼ miles on the main track, is limited to 14 starters. The race will be broadcast live on NBC.

The Longines Breeders' Cup Classic Rankings are determined by a panel of leading Thoroughbred racing media, horseplayers, and members of the Breeders' Cup Racing Directors/Secretaries Panel. Rankings will be announced each week through Oct. 11. A list of voting members can be found here.

In the Breeders' Cup Classic Rankings, each voter rates horses on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 system in descending order.

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Sadler Reveling In Third Pacific Classic Win

TVG Pacific Classic upset winner Tripoli ($15.00) was asleep in his stall at mid-morning. Trainer John Sadler was inclined to leave the 1 ¼-length winner over Tizamagician undisturbed, calling it a “good sign,” while reflecting on what was a third TVG Pacific Classic victory for Sadler and Hronis racing in the last four years.

“I'm in the latter part of my career and when you can win these big races, I feel very blessed,” Sadler said. “I'm not that old, I'm 65, but I've been around a long time and I don't feel like I'm in the middle part of my career, whether there's two, five or 10 years left to go.”

As a “Win and You're In” qualifier for the $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar on November 6, Tripoli is now assured a spot in the champion-making race Sadler and Hronis won in 2018 with Accelerate.

Campaign planning for Tripoli going forward will be put on hold at least temporarily.

“We'll see how Rock Your World runs next Sunday ($100,000 Shared Belief Stakes), they might be candidates for the same race,” Sadler said. “(Tripoli) could run once (before the Classic) or… whatever.”

For the stable of Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella, the momentum of victories by Forbidden Kingdom (4th race, $10.60) and Subconscious  (5th, $13.60) didn't carry over to the stakes. Tizamagician led for the first mile of the 1 ¼-mile Classic before yielding to Tripoli and his Royal Ship, the second wagering choice at just under 3-1, was a no-factor seventh.

“A pretty good day, you're never going to complain if you win two races on the day,” said Gary Mandella, deputizing for his father. “We had a really good second in the Classic with Tizamagician, but Royal Ship is a bit of a mystery. We don't know what went on with him except maybe the year has been a little bit tiring on him. We'll listen to him and figure him out. He'll tell us what to do.”

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Hall Of Famers Mandella, Smith A Powerful Combo For Royal Ship In Pacific Classic

Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella and Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith have a combined 27 “participations” in the $1 million TVG Pacific Classic.

They have four wins apiece and a combined 18 in-the-money finishes.

For Mandella, the record shows 17 starters, four wins, six seconds and a third. Dare And Go's phenomenal upset of Cigar in 1996 was the first victory for Mandella with Gentleman (1997), Pleasantly Perfect (2004) and Beholder (2015) following.

For Smith, it's 10 mounts, four wins, one second and two third-place finishes. The victories were guiding Came Home (2002), back-to-back with Richard's Kid in 2009-10 and Shared Belief in 2014.

It's all been separately. The two have never combined on a TVG Pacific Classic runner.

“It's about time,” was Mandella's immediate reaction.

“It's about time,” were Smith's first words when apprised of the fact a few days later.

The time will come Saturday in the 31st running of the signature event of Del Mar's summer meeting. Mandella will saddle and Smith will ride Fox Hill Farm and Siena Farm's Royal Ship, a Brazilian-bred 5-year-old son of 2008 Del Mar Futurity winner Midshipman, the 7-2 second choice behind 3-1 favorite Express Train on the morning line.

If Mandella and Smith haven't hooked up for the Classic before this, it's because they were orbiting at different, albeit exceptionally high, levels when selecting riders for mounts or mounts to ride.

Gary Stevens (Beholder and Gentleman), Jerry Bailey (Pleasantly Perfect) and Alex Solis (Dare And Go), Hall of Famers all, piloted Mandella's TVG Pacific Classic winners. Three of Smith's four Classic victories came for Hall of Fame trainers – Bob Baffert with Richard's Kid and Jerry Hollendorfer with Shared Belief.

And there was one notable near miss.

“I was riding Pleasantly Perfect, but I had already (committed to) Came Home,” Smith recalled. Pleasantly Perfect finished fourth to Came Home in 2002, skipped the Pacific Classic in 2003 but won the Breeders' Cup Classic and returned as a 6-year-old in 2004 to win the Dubai World Cup and the Pacific Classic.

“You don't know what would have happened if I'd have been able to stay with him,” Smith said. “But he won just about everything the next year and the year after that.”

That Mandella and Smith are together on Royal Ship is in a major part attributable to John Fulton, a former Southern California-based trainer who is now a bloodstock agent and equine talent scout in South America, and the late Rick Porter of Fox Hill Farms.

“John Fulton contacted Mr. Porter and sent him some films of the horse that he thought looked really good,” Mandella said. “Mr. Porter sent them to me and I agreed, so they bought him.”

Porter's recommendation that Smith get the call was based on years of success together. Smith provided Porter, who died from cancer on June 6, with his first Grade I win on Jostle in 2000. More recently, Smith rode the filly Songbird through a career of 13 victories in 15 starts, 12 of them stakes, Eclipse Awards in filly divisions as a 2-year-old in 2015 and 3-year-old in 2016. And, in one of the most memorable races of recent years a runner-up to Beholder by a nose in the 2016 Breeders' Cup Distaff at Santa Anita.

Royal Ship was on a five-race winning streak in his native Brazil, capped by a victory in the Group I Estado do Rio de Janeiro in February last year, when the call came to send him to America. There was quarantine upon arrival and four months acclimating under Mandella's care before his first U.S. start. It came on August 23, 2020 in the Del Mar Mile and resulted in a third-place finish, beaten 4 ¼ lengths by Mo Forza.

It took three more starts, all in Graded events, and the “ultimate equipment change” of being gelded before notching a victory in the Grade II Californian in April, a close second in the Grade I Hollywood Gold Cup in May and third, beaten 1 ¼-lengths by TVG Pacific Classic favorite Express Train in the San Diego Handicap on July 17.

“He has always trained like a really good horse,” Mandella said. “He's done well, but as he got older he got a little studdish, and that that's when we gelded him. He was having trouble in his races, but he was making his own trouble.”

Smith has been a co-contributor through the work-in-progress stage with Royal Ship

And now speaks with enthusiasm about the horse.

“When he first came over, he was not a very mature horse,” Smith said. “He would never stand straight in the gate, didn't break that well. All his races had been on turf and we thought of him as a turf horse at first.

“His first few races here were good, but he wasn't really giving his all. I knew there was more left in him. We wound up gelding him and it made a difference. He's been standing in the gate well, jumping really well and he hasn't run a bad race since.

“The horse is really coming around at the right time and he has really found a home and a place to excel at the mile-and-an-eighth to mile-and-a-quarter distance.”

With Smith in the irons, Royal Ship breezed a half-mile in :47.80 last Monday in his final TVG Pacific Classic tune-up

“He was in the bridle, wanting to do it and finished strong,” Smith said. “Hopefully he'll get a good run, do what I believe he can do and combine for a fifth win apiece.”

For the first-time TVG Pacific Classic combination of Smith and Mandella.

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Equibase Analysis: Dr Post Poised To Upset Pacific Classic

Saturday's Grade 1, $1 million TVG Pacific Classic Stakes at Del Mar, a “Win and You're In” race for the Breeders' Cup Classic, drew a field of nine this year. It's a strong group consisting of three recent graded stakes winners and another four who were in-the-money in their most recent races.

Leading the field in career earnings, with $700K banked, is the lightly raced 4-year-old Dr Post, who ships in from Todd Pletcher's summer base at Saratoga off a strong win in the Grade 2 Monmouth Cup Stakes last month. Next in career success and earnings is Express Train, who has earned $659K, much of it when victorious last month in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap.

Tripoli was a half-length back in that race in his first ever stakes try and must be respected as a contender. Royal Ship was another three-quarters of a length back in the San Diego and two races prior to that won the Grade 2 Californian Stakes to prove he belongs at this level.

Tizamagician and Cupid's Claws finished first and second, respectively, in the mile and one-half Grade 2 Cougar II Stakes last month and both will attempt to run as well or better shortening up by a quarter mile. Independence Hall was a top three year old early last year when winning the Jerome Stakes on New Year's Day but has only won once in seven races since and was soundly defeated in the Californian when last seen four months ago.

Sheriff Brown, a former claiming level horse, has won six of 21 races lifetime and three of his last five but finished a far back in fifth and seventh in his two recent graded stakes races. Magic On Tap rounds out the field. Winner of the Grade 2 Triple Bend Stakes at seven furlongs in May, Magic On Tap enters the Pacific Classic off a non-threatening fifth-place effort in the San Diego Handicap last month.

Most of the nine entrants in this year's Pacific Classic have been taking turns beating each other:

Express Train beat Tripoli and Royal Ship in the San Diego Handicap last month but Royal Ship finished in front of Express Train seven weeks earlier when second in the Gold Cup at Santa Anita. Express Train beat Tizamagician in the San Pasqual Stakes this past January, then one day after the San Diego Handicap, Tizamagician beat Cupid's Claws in the Cougar II Stakes. However, Cupid's Claws had beaten Tizamagician when winning the Tokyo City Stakes last summer. When winning the Californian Stakes in April, Royal Ship beat Independence Hall ,and Express Train finished in front of Independence Hall when second in the Malibu Stakes last December. Sheriff Brown was far back in the San Diego, as was Magic On Tap, who also we well beaten by Royal Ship in the Californian.

With all that turn-taking to consider, the race is ready to be won by a new face. That new face is Dr Post, with a career-best and field high last race 108 ™ Equibase® Speed Figure. That figure is likely to be improved upon as this will be Dr Post's second start since adding blinkers as well as his second with Joel Rosario in the saddle. Dr Post made his third start following an eight month layoff in the Monmouth Cup Stakes last month, run on the same day as the San Diego and won more easily than the one and one-quarter length margin of victory makes it appear as he was “ridden out” in the final stages. Given that his first two races this year were at the distance of a mile around one turn, the stretch out to a mile and one-eighth around two turns in the Monmouth Cup sets the stage for an even better effort in the Pacific Classic.

Express Train is the next most probable winner of this year's Pacific Classic, but unlike Dr Post (who has never run this mile and one-quarter trip), Express Train is winless in two tries at the distance. His best effort of the two tries came when beaten a half-length in the Santa Anita Handicap in March, in which he led by two lengths with an eighth of a mile to go and was caught near the wire. It's just unclear whether he can run his best at this distance, but coming off a big win in the San Diego Handicap last month with a 107 ™ figure, and having run so well in the Santa Anita Handicap, Express Train has every right to win this race, particularly as he may have the early lead all to himself from the start.

There's no doubt Royal Ship, Tripoli, Tizamagician and Cupid's Claws have some chance to win, but each as one negative factor in my opinion which makes that must more improbable than the top two win contenders. Royal Ship earned a 113 ™ figure winning the Californian in April and finished in front of Express Train by a head in the Gold Cup (111 figure) but disappointed badly in the San Diego when a non-threatening third as the betting favorite with no excuse. Tripoli earned a 109 ™ figure one before last in an allowance race and nearly duplicated the effort when second to Express Train in the San Diego Handicap but his six pound difference is not in effect here as they are at even weight and there's no indication he wants to run this far, having never run farther than one mile and one-sixteenth on dirt. Tizamagician (career-best 106 winning figure) and Cupid's Claws (career-best 100 figure) both sport graded stakes wins at a mile and one-half, but that doesn't mean they can run this well at the classic distance of one mile and one-quarter.

The rest of the field, with their best ™ Equibase Speed Figures, is Independence Hall (110), Magic On Tap (106) and Sheriff Brown (104).

Win Contenders:
Dr Post
Express Train

TVG Pacific Classic Stakes – Grade 1
Race 10 at Del Mar
Saturday, August 21 – Post Time 9:30 PM E.T.
One Mile and One Quarter
Three Years Olds and Upward
Purse: $1 Million

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