Game On Dude heads Pacific Classic field

The richest race of the Del Mar meeting is set for Sunday, when the Grade I, $1-million TVG Pacific Classic takes place at 1 1/4 miles, and the horse to beat is the Bob Baffert-trained Game On Dude.

The winner of the 2011 Santa Anita Handicap and the 2012 Hollywood Gold Cup, Game On Dude has been California’s top handicap horse. An injury to last year’s Pacific Classic winner, Acclamation, leaves Game On Dude, with jockey Chantal Sutherland, as the controlling speed entry in the race.

The large purse is serving as motivation for lots of challengers to Game On Dude. Richard’s Kid, previously trained by Baffert until privately sold last week and transferred to the barn of suspended trainer Doug O’Neill, won the Pacific Classic in 2009 and 2010 and figures to be charging in the stretch.

Suggestive Boy, an Argentine-bred 4-year-old, has been training superbly for his Polytrack debut. Trainer Ron McAnally has done this before, winning the 2003 Pacific Classic with another Argentine star, Candy Ride.

Trainer Neil Drysdale has the 4-year-old filly Amani ready to take on the boys. Amani won 10 of 11 starts in her native Chile and finished a fast-closing third in her first U.S. start on Aug. 4 in the Clement L. Hirsch Stakes.

Dullahan, the third-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby who has won on a Polytrack surface, will have jockey Joel Rosario in his return to the Southern California circuit.

Rail Trip is looking like the thoroughbred of old after returning to the barn of trainer Ron Ellis. He’ll be in race No. 4 of his comeback under Ellis after being sent to New York in late 2010. The 7-year-old finished third in the Pacific Classic in 2009.

“In an ideal world, I wish I had one more race,” Ellis said. “My horse is training tremendously and doing well.”

First post is 1 p.m. The Pacific Classic is race No. 9 on an 11-race card that also includes the $250,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs and the $200,000 Del Mar Mile over the turf.

The Pacific Classic winner earns an automatic berth to the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 3 at Santa Anita.

“It’s coming up to be a pretty strong race with some really good horses in there that we know can get the mile and a quarter,” Baffert said. “The pace is going to be the key and on this particular surface, it means a lot who likes it and who doesn’t. It’s like any big race. It’s who shows up that day.”

eric.sondheimer@latimes.com