Arrogate hopes to return to form in Pacific Classic at Del Mar

About 20 minutes before post time, a Hall of Fame trainer will saddle him up. Then, a few minutes later, a Hall of Fame jockey will climb aboard.

He’ll head to the starting gate for the eighth race, line up in the outside post position, and to his left will be a handful of quality race horses. In front of him will be 1¼ miles of Del Mar’s main track.

The big question is what will be waiting for him at the end? Redemption? History? Or once again, the unthinkable?

Arrogate is the richest North American thoroughbred ever with more than $17 million in earnings. And he is unquestionably the centerpiece of Saturday’s 27th running of the $1-million Pacific Classic.

But he is coming off the worst performance of his career when he finished a badly beaten fourth, more than 15 lengths behind Accelerate, in the July 22 San Diego Handicap.

The result stunned the horse racing world. It still has many scratching their heads.

“To this day, I am still puzzled by it,” said trainer Bob Baffert, who ought to know his champion better than anybody. “To see him run like that was devastating. But I haven’t seen anything since then that makes me think he won’t run like his old self [Saturday].”

Arrogate had won four consecutive Grade I events and was riding a seven-race winning streak as impressive as any horse could have before falling flat at Del Mar.

He had romped to victory in last August’s Travers Stakes by a record 13½ lengths. Then he toppled the great California Chrome, winning a thrilling stretch duel by a half-length in November’s Breeders’ Cup Classic. He opened 2017 with dominating wins in the $12-million Pegasus World Cup and the $10-million Dubai World Cup.

There seemed no stopping him. And most still feel he’ll get started again as the even-money morning-line favorite with Mike Smith aboard.

Any conversation of another upset has to start with Accelerate (3-1), ridden by another Hall of Famer, Victor Espinoza, who despite winning the San Diego Handicap, came out of the race as no better than back-page news. Accelerate has never lost in three starts at Del Mar, and had finished second when Arrogate ran third in his maiden race at Los Alamitos in April, 2016.

“We thought he was going to run a big race that day,” said John Sadler, Accelerate’s trainer. “But to win it and beat Arrogate was a special thrill.

“Now, after a performance like that, there’s some hesitation when you run him back. We just decided to watch him closely and make sure he’s right on his game when he goes back out there. Obviously, we think he is.”

Both Baffert and Sadler are scheduled to have other entries in the race Saturday. Baffert will send out Collected, a winner of seven of 10 career starts, including three in a row this spring at Santa Anita. Collected seemingly has put behind him a 10th-place finish in last year’s Preakness, run in the mud at Pimlico, although like Accelerate, he has never gone 1 ¼ miles. Arrogate is 3-for-3 at the distance.

Sadler has said the distance-running Hard Aces is about 80 percent to start, and if he does, it would be his third consecutive appearance in the Pacific Classic. He finished eighth and sixth the last two years.

Doug O’Neill, twice a Kentucky Derby-winning trainer with I’ll Have Another in 2012 and Nyquist in 2016, is going with two entries as well — Donworth, who finished second to Accelerate, albeit 8½ lengths behind in the San Diego Handicap, and Curlin Road, who won the 1½-mile Cougar II Handicap his last time out.

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