There are so many factors that go into having a horse win a particular race three years in a row. There\u2019s keeping the horse in top form over a long period of time. There\u2019s having that horse primed and ready for the particular race every year, and then there\u2019s actually going out and winning the race.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why Gold Phoenix winning the G2 Del Mar Handicap three years in a row last year was such a remarkable feat, not only for the horse but for the trainer who conditions him and the team of people who handle him every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe good thing about Little Red Feather is they always do right by their horses,\u201d D\u2019Amato contends, \u201cand they let me manage them the proper way. That\u2019s why we have a chance at winning four Del Mar Handicaps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gold Phoenix, a now 7-year-old son of Irish stallion Belardo, will be back again this year, trying to make it an unprecedented four-in-a-row in the \u2018Handicap\u2019, run as part of the undercard on Pacific Classic Day this Saturday at Del Mar. It\u2019s at a marathon distance of a mile and three-eighths on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be tremendous,\u201d D\u2019Amato says about winning the \u2018Handicap\u2019 for a fourth time. \u201cJust for the horse alone, the prestige behind it all, that would be awesome. It takes a total team. His exercise rider has been with him since day one. Same with his groom and everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gold Phoenix comes into the race off of a third-place finish to Final Boss in a salty allowance race three weeks ago. It was designed as a prep, and D\u2019Amato could not have been more pleased, short of winning the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing a mile, I think it was a good prep,\u201d trainer Phil D\u2019Amato says. \u201cNow we\u2019re going to get the distance I think he prefers.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Flavien Prat, who will be in for the big weekend at Del Mar, will ride Gold Phoenix in the \u2018Handicap\u2019.<\/p>\n
Final Boss is back to see if he can upset the three-time winner again. The son of American Pharoah won the allowance race Gold Phoenix used as a prep.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe showed more versatility,\u201d trainer John Sadler notes. \u201cThat was the first time he laid off of the pace. Juan (Hernandez) said he didn\u2019t need the pace. But he\u2019s a horse who\u2019s doing very well here. I think he\u2019s a contender.\u201d<\/p>\n
Final Boss has run four times in 2025 and won two of them.<\/p>\n
Trainer Leonard Powell will start Nitti in the Del Mar Handicap. The Irish-bred won the G3 San Juan Capistrano last out at Santa Anita, a race that is run at 1 3\/4 miles.<\/p>\n
Stay Hot is out of the Peter Eurton barn. He won last year\u2019s La Jolla Handicap at Del Mar and ran second to Formidable Man in the G2 Mathis Mile at Santa Anita at the end of last year. He\u2019s only run twice this year, winning the $250,000 Texas Turf Classic at Lone Star Park and then ran third in the G2 Eddie Read at Del Mar.<\/p>\n
Atitlan could be a serious threat to spoil Gold Phoenix\u2019s party. The son of The Factor won back-to-back graded stakes earlier this year. He captured the 1 \u00bd-mile G3 San Luis Rey at Santa Anita in March and then the G2 Charles Whittingham in May.<\/p>\n
Finally, Truly Quality, last year\u2019s G2 Hollywood Turf Cup winner, will try to get his conditioner, Jonathan Thomas, back in the winner\u2019s circle. He\u2019s only run once this year, a sixth-place finish in the G3 San Marcos in February at Santa Anita.<\/p>\n
The G2 Del Mar Handicap is a \u2018Win and You\u2019re In\u2019 for the Breeders\u2019 Cup Turf. It goes off as the 11th and final race on the Pacific Classic Day card.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the field from the rail out with the jockeys: Balnikhov (Antonio Fresu); Adios Cole (Ricardo Gonzalez); Nitti (Armando Ayuso); Stay Hot (Mike Smith); Atitlan (Hector I. Berrios); Mondego (Kazushi Kimura); Truly Quality (Umberto Rispoli); Final Boss (Juan Hernandez); Endlessly (John Velazquez); City Exile (Paco Lopez), and Gold Phoenix.<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported by Paulick Report<\/a> on Aug 28, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Paulick Report as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are so many factors that go into having a horse win a particular race three years in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[6552,48974,31573,5989,3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-100181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-del-mar","tag-del-mar-handicap","tag-phil-damato","tag-phoenix","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}