DEL MAR \u2014 The San Diego Handicap has produced its share of notable champions over the past decade.<\/p>\n
California Chrome won in 2016. Accelerate scored a year later. And Nysos won last year in a 1-2 sweep by trainer Bob Baffert.<\/p>\n
But few of the lead-ins to the Pacific Classic have been as appealing as Saturday\u2019s 85th running of the 1 1\/16th-mile test for older horses on the dirt \u2014 the feature of the second day of Del Mar\u2019s 87th summer meeting.<\/p>\n
The 32-day meeting opened Friday with Proletariat tying the 22-year-old race record while winning the featured $150,000 Oceanside Handicap for 3-year-olds at one mile on the turf before 21,422.<\/p>\n
Proletariat, a son of Raging Bull co-owned by San Diegans Michele Arthur and Ruben Islas, covered the distance in 1 minute, 33.54 seconds to defeat Secured Freedom by 5 3\/4 lengths.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, the return of Journalism to Del Mar is the focus of the San Diego Handicap. But the field also features Full Serrano as well as last year\u2019s runner-up Mirahmadi.<\/p>\n
The only horse to run in all three legs of the 2025 Triple Crown \u2014 Journalism won the Preakness between runner-up finishes to Sovereignty in the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes \u2014 the 4-year-old son of Curlin makes his third start of 2026, but his first in California.<\/p>\n
Journalism finished third in both the Grade II Oaklawn Handicap in April and Grade I Met Mile won by Nysos at Saratoga in June before the Belmont Stakes. Jose Ortiz was aboard Journalism for those two races as well as Journalism\u2019s fourth-place run in the Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic last Nov. 1 at Del Mar.<\/p>\n
Journalism will be reunited with jockey Umberto Rispoli for the San Diego Handicap. Rispoli rode Journalism in nine of his first 10 starts with five wins \u2014 including three 2025 Grade I races: the Preakness, the Haskell and the Santa Anita Derby.<\/p>\n
Journalism has six wins in 13 starts with three seconds and three thirds.<\/p>\n
Trainer Michael McCarthy \u2014 who warmed up for the San Diego with three wins on opening day, two with Rispoli riding \u2014 likes the prospects of Journalism.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a very impressive physical specimen,\u201d said McCarthy. \u201cHe\u2019s a bigger, stronger horse this year. And it\u2019s nice to have a home game for him instead of having to put him on a plane.\u201d<\/p>\n
The morning line has Journalism an even-money favorite with the main threats seen as Full Serrano (7-2) and The Goat and Mirahmadi at 6-1.<\/p>\n
Full Serrano won the 2024 Breeders\u2019 Cup Mile at Del Mar after being upset by longshot Mixto in the Pacific Classic. The Argentine-bred 7-year-old has three wins in five starts at Del Mar and more recently ran third in the Pegasus World Cup.<\/p>\n
Trainer John Sadler will have both Full Serrano and the Chilean-bred The Goat in the San Diego Handicap as he tries to score a sixth career win in the race and a 94th Del Mar stakes victory.<\/p>\n
The San Diego Handicap is one of two Grade II stakes on the program. Eleven, 3-year-old fillies are scheduled to compete at one mile on the turf in the San Clemente Handicap, which is a prep for next month\u2019s Grade I Del Mar Oaks.<\/p>\n
Three of the starters \u2014 trainer Brendan Walsh\u2019s Raiding Party, trainer Kelsey Danner\u2019s Ground Support and trainer Saffie Joseph\u2019s Spirit Doll \u2014 have shipped in for the San Clemente with Raiding Party being the 3-1 morning line favorite.<\/p>\n
Pulling away<\/p>\n
Proletariat ($14.80) took the lead shortly after the start in Friday\u2019s feature and pulled away, giving jockey Kyle Frey his first stakes win since late in the 2025 Del Mar summer meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis race today was a real good one,\u201d Frey said of Proletariat. \u201cHe\u2019s always had the speed. It was a matter of getting to shut down early and wait for it. We\u2019ve been working with him in the mornings and he\u2019s getting better and better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trainer Jeff Mullins said it was important to find the right race for Proletariat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was the only spot there was for him,\u201d said Mullins. \u201cWe knew the horse was a little bit rank going long. And Kyle has worked hard with the horse getting him to slow down early and finish strong. I told Kyle to get him to settle. He got him on the lead and he ran around there with his ears up the whole way and turned it on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Favored Mr. A.P. was third among the 11 Oceanside starters. Both Secured Freedom and Mr. A.P. were racing on the turf for the first time.<\/p>\n
Notable<\/p>\n
Rispoli and McCarthy prepped for the San Diego Handicap by teaming to score back-to-back, opening day wins in the second (Victorious Dream, $8.40) and third (Los Angeles, $18.00) races. McCarthy then scored his third victory with favorite Detain ($4.60, Juan Hernandez) in the sixth.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Jockey Florent Geroux has decided to remain in the east this season, coming to Del Mar only for select races.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Opening day attendance was 21,422, up slightly from last year\u2019s 21,209 count.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DEL MAR \u2014 The San Diego Handicap has produced its share of notable champions over the past decade.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[8506,181,74,76,75,127],"class_list":["post-403093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-horse-racing","tag-latest-headlines","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}