(Om N Joy to run in G1 Pacific Classic / Benoit Photo & Courtesy of Del Mar)

From the Del Mar Turf Club Media Team / Jim Charvat:

OM N JOY A ‘GO’ FOR THE PACIFIC CLASSIC

“All systems are ‘go.’”

That’s the word from trainer Aggie Ordonez on her filly Om N Joy’s status for next week’s 36th running of the G1, $1 million, Pacific Classic at Del Mar. Eighteen horses have been nominated to the race. The draw will take place tomorrow around noon.

Meanwhile in the morning, Om N Joy will put in her final work for the big race on August 22.

“Of course, everything depends on that going smoothly and beautifully,” Ordonez says. “I think it will. I think she’ll come into the race as good as she’s been and Kent (Desormeaux) will ride her to perfection.”

Om N Joy earned a chance at Del Mar’s marquee race when she won the G2 Santa Margarita at Santa Anita in May and followed it with a surging second-place finish in the G1 Clement L. Hirsch at Del Mar on August 1. This would be her first time taking on the boys.

“She was a little rascal this morning,” Ordonez claims. “She had the down time about three days after the race and then she was back into pre-race mode. She’s a monster right now.”

Knightsbridge was due to arrive at Del Mar Saturday. The son of Nyquist worked five furlongs in 1:00.60 at Saratoga Friday for trainer Bill Mott before boarding a plane destined for California Saturday morning. The 2025 Kentucky Derby winning rider Junior Alvarado has been named to ride Knightsbridge in the Pacific Classic.

A couple of Pacific Classic nominees worked Saturday morning for trainer John Sadler. Full Serrano went six-furlongs in 1:11.00. The Goat worked five furlongs in 1:00.00. Full Serrano, the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner, is a go for the Classic but the connections are still on the fence with The Goat, a Chilean-bred who ran fourth last month in the G2 San Diego at Del Mar.

Also undecided 24 hours before the draw is Malarchuk and Bullard from the Michael McCarthy barn. Malarchuk, runner-up in the G2 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on Memorial Day, worked five furlongs in 1:00.00 Saturday morning.

“He worked well so we got to figure it out,” McCarthy says. “They’re also nominated for the Charles Town (Classic). I’ll go ahead and get with Mr. Reddam and Erik (Johnson of ERJ Racing) and everybody and talk to them about it.”

Stronghold is also nominated for the Pacific Classic. He worked five furlongs in 1:01.20 at Del Mar Saturday morning but trainer Phil D’Amato says he’s leaning toward running his Santa Anita Derby winner in the seven furlong G2 Pat O’Brien on August 29.

Also on the Saturday work tab was Nevada Beach who went four furlongs in :47.40. He’s another one whose trainer is hedging whether or not to run in the Classic.

“The mile and a quarter may be too much for him,” Bob Baffert says. “He’s doing really well but coming off of the layoff that may be asking a lot of him.”

Nevada Beach hasn’t run since finishing a distant 12th in the Saudi Cup in February. He’s been on the work tab since the middle of June.

INSHALLAH MAKES LONG ANTICIPATED DEBUT SATURDAY AT DEL MAR

Flightline’s first crop reached racing age this year and several have made their debuts across the country. One of the more anticipated debuts comes today at Del Mar when Inshallah makes his first career start for trainer John Sadler.

Inshallah was purchased last May at the Fasig-Tipton Mid-Atlantic 2-year-olds in training sale by KAS Stables for $2,100,000. He’s out of a Medaglia d’Oro mare Bar Of Gold, who was a reputable racehorse in her own right. She won the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.

Inshallah’s sire needs no introduction at Del Mar. Flightline was undefeated during his six-race career that included a victory in the 2022 Pacific Classic. That was after he had won the G1 Met Mile and before his score in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, which led to his being named Horse of the Year in 2022. And he didn’t just win races, he scorched the opposition, never winning a race by less than six lengths. He won the Pacific Classic by a record 19 ¼ lengths.

So it’s no surprise most of his progeny are being met with high expectations which can be a burden for most trainers. Unless you’re John Sadler, who actually trained Flightline.

“He came out directly from the sale,” Sadler says of Inshallah. “We’ve been bringing him along slowly and he’s an exciting prospect. He’s doing good and is ready to go.”

Inshallah has put in nine official workouts leading up to today’s race. The last was on August 9, a four-furlong drill in :47, third best of 89 at the distance that day.

“What I’ve seen in general with all of the Flightlines,” Sadler contends, “is whatever they do going short, they’ll do even better going long. We have several of them (in the barn) and they all have great airways like their father had, an A+ throat and they all have a lot of gas in the engine.”

Flightline’s first crop consists of 124 registered foals. He covered 152 mares in 2023, his initial breeding season. So far over a dozen have made their first starts, four have raced twice and two have visited the winner’s circle.

Inshallah has drawn post #5 in Saturday’s maiden special weight. The field of eight juveniles will be going 5 ½ furlongs on the main track. All eight will be making their career debuts. It’s Race 7. Probable post time is 5 p.m.

SWEET AZTECA SEEKS THREE-IN-A-ROW IN G3 RANCHO BERNARDO

There are many things about Del Mar you can count on. The sun will be shining, the racing will be exciting and Sweet Azteca will make her annual appearance in the G3 Rancho Bernardo.

The smart looking gray or roan mare by Sharp Azteca has won the past two runnings of the Rancho Bernardo, a six and a half-furlong sprint on the main track, and she’s back in 2026 for a third go-round. She’s won eight of her 10 career starts and her last three in a row.

“She’s a lot fresher,” trainer Richard Baltas says. “She’s only had one race (this year). She had a lot of time off and she’s doing really well.”

Her three-race winning streak started last year when she won the G2 Great Lady M at Los Alamitos for the second year in a row. She followed that with her second consecutive victory in the Rancho Bernardo, wiring the field and winning by 3 ½ easy lengths. She was the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint but got scratched the day of the race and didn’t race again until last month when she returned to win her third Great Lady M.

She’ll be attempting to win her third straight Rancho Bernardo Sunday.

“If she’s right, she doesn’t lose,” Baltas states. “That’s why I gave her four months off this year. I think she’ll be a lot better than the Los Alamitos race because she’s a much fitter horse now.”

That’s bad news for the other five horses who have chosen to take on Sweet Azteca in the Rancho Bernardo, including her stablemate, Sweet Gal of Mine, who has been sprinting on the turf in her last six races.

Two of the contenders are out of the John Sadler barn. Catalina Cocktail, who scratched out of the CTT and TOC Stakes Saturday to run in the Rancho Bernardo, and Thermal, a speedball by Nyquist. She won the Memorial Day Sprint at Lone Star Park by 8 ¼ lengths.

“She went over to Texas and ran a fantastic race,” Sadler comments. “Had a big high Beyer and so we tried to give her enough spacing, not to run her back too quick. She’s training great here. Looks pretty much like a two-horse race.”

Sadler has won the Rancho Bernardo seven times. Three times in a row in the late nineties with Track Gal and back-to-back in 2021 and ’22 with Edgeway.

Looking to pull off the upset or, at the very least, to get a piece of the pie, are Antifona, a French-bred who ran third in the G3 Wilshire at Santa Anita in March and Fire Ban, who was a career oh-for-11 when she returned to Del Mar and promptly broke her maiden in an entry level allowance race on July 24.

The 55th running of the G3 Rancho Bernardo is Race 5 on the 10-race Sunday card. Probable post time is 4 p.m.

Here’s the field from the rail with the jockeys and morning line odds: Thermal (Joel Rosario, 6/5); Catalina Cocktail (Emisael Jaramillo, 20-1); Antifona (Kent Desormeaux, 20-1); Fire Ban (Armando Ayuso, 12-1); Sweet Azteca (Juan Hernandez, 4/5), and Sweet Gal of Mine (Mike Smith, 12-1).

UMBERTO RISPOLI ON REHAB, JOURNALISM, AND KARAOKE

It has been nearly eight months since Jockey Umberto Rispoli’s horrific accident during the running of the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint. Rispoli’s mount Unconquerable Keen clipped heels with another horse, sending the rider over his left shoulder and crashing hard onto the turf.

He suffered a fractured ankle, a broken fibula in his left leg, and a small fracture of his tibia, all of which led to multiple surgeries to repair and months of rehab in Spain and France.  And yet by June, he was back up working horses and today he rides with the confidence and ability as if nothing ever happened.

“People say that and I appreciate it because I worked hard at it,” Rispoli says. “I have a lot of experience with this kind of thing. My background has been 20 years, and you learn injuries are part of the game. We don’t want to be hurt. We don’t want to be on the sideline for too long. It’s just something you have to put into the package when you sign up to be a jockey.”

Rispoli has had his share of injuries. He broke the same ankle in the past, torn an ACL in his knee as well as the meniscus and he fractured a collarbone. But he keeps bouncing back. In the case of the collarbone, he had surgery on a Saturday and was back on a horse the next Sunday.

“We are no NFL players,” Rispoli contends. “We have no contract so we can’t afford to be on the sideline too much. In this business if you don’t work you don’t eat. Of course, you can come back too quick in which case you risk hurting yourself again and time in the rehab is going to be twice as long. You don’t want that.”

He got back in time to ride a few horses at Los Alamitos and was full throttle by the time he got to Del Mar. He won a few races that first week and looked as if he had never left. He even got to reunite with an old friend. On July 25 he rode Journalism to a come-from-behind victory in the G2 San Diego.

“I think the horse ran a brave race in the San Diego,” Rispoli states. “Giving up so many lengths at the start after what happened. I think it was a brave effort. It would have been interesting at the end of the year.”

Journalism was injured in the San Diego when he broke awkwardly at the start and was retired from racing. Of all the top racehorses Rispoli has ridden in his career, there’s no question who he thinks is the best.

“I rank him on top of everyone,” Rispoli says. “To have the opportunity to ride such a brave horse, an intelligent horse, a powerful horse, a classy horse, he gave me the opportunity to get to the first Saturday in May and ride in the Kentucky Derby where you have all the eyes of the world on you. It’s not going to happen every year to ride the favorite in the Kentucky Derby so to me it was something special.”

Rispoli returned at a time when the Del Mar jockey colony was getting an upgrade. A Hall of Fame rider in Joel Rosario, a jockey with credentials for Hall of Fame consideration in Julien Leparoux and Santa Anita’s riding champ, Emisael Jaramillo all came aboard this summer. Not the same jockey colony that Rispoli defeated for the riders’ title last fall at Del Mar.

‘It’s competitive,” Rispoli states. “There are some good jockeys here. There’s a lot of respect between each other. When you’re riding with good jockeys it makes you a good jockey. You just need to take care of your horse. Sometimes when you ride with a different quality of rider you have to look around more and understand what’s going on ahead of you and behind you. I’m fortunate all my life; I’ve ridden with top class riders. Then you just need to choose the right horse and ride the perfect race.”

If there was any doubt about Rispoli’s health it was put the rest at the recent Jockeys Karoake Night for the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach. He teamed up with his wife, Kimberly, on “You’re the One That I Want” from the movie ‘Grease’ and clinched his third straight year of winning the event.

“I pushed her to do something together and the song we chose was a famous song from a famous movie,” Rispoli recalls. “I thought it would be fun and at the end of the day it was for the PDJF. Something to give to the crowd who had come to see the guys and put some money into the foundation. We didn’t rehearse any of the steps or the kicks. We saw it on the video and just did it right there. I told her it’s the only chance in your life to give me a kick so you better take it.”

Rispoli says he might retire from the Karaoke competition just to give his fellow jockeys a chance. But that’s only the Karaoke. He has no plans of quitting racing. He’s worked too hard to do that.

COOLING OUT: Jockey Drayden Van Dyke notched his first victory of 2026 and first victory at Del Mar since last summer when he booted home Humidity for trainer Patty Gallagher in Friday’s nightcap. Van Dyke took a break from racing following the 2025 summer meet at Del Mar and didn’t return to racing until the start of this year’s meet. It was also Gallagher’s first win of the meet and first at Del Mar since last summer…Notable works on Saturday: Dirt – Lovesick Blues (3f, :37.00); Free Closer (4f, :48.20); Mirahmadi (4f, :47.40); Mondego (4f, :50.40); On the Whim (4f, :50.80); Simply Joking (4f, :47.20); Speedy Wilson (4f, :48.60); Dr. Venkman (5f, :58.60); Formidable Man (5f, 1:00.40); Mohaven (5f, 1:00.00), and British Isles (6f, 1:12.00). 213 horses out in official works at Del Mar on Saturday.