DEL MAR \u2014 A 2026 Kentucky Derby starter and two horses who beat him earlier in his career head up an interesting feature Friday for 3-year-old Cal-breds at Del Mar.<\/p>\n
Pavlovian, a son of Pavel trained by Doug O\u2019Neill, returns to Southern California after an unsuccessful spring trip to Kentucky. Pavlovian was 18th and last in the Kentucky Derby some 48\u00bd lengths behind winner Golden Tempo, then finished seventh among eight starters five weeks later in the Grade III Matt Winn Stakes also at Churchill Downs.<\/p>\n
But Pavlovian is the morning-line favorite to win Friday\u2019s ungraded, $150,000 Real Good Deal Stakes.<\/p>\n
Eleven starters are expected for the seven-furlong race on the main track, including Ocean Bear, who won last November\u2019s Golden State Juvenile at Del Mar on the Breeders\u2019 Cup undercard after defeating Pavlovian four weeks earlier in an entry-level allowance race at Santa Anita.<\/p>\n
Pavlovian is the early 7-2 pick with Edwin Maldonado back aboard. Maldonado rode Pavlovian in both Kentucky races. Ocean Bear (Umberto Rispoli) is 5-1 with Start the Ride (Armando Ayuso) at 4-1.<\/p>\n
An early speed horse, Pavlovian showed up on the Kentucky Derby list of hopefuls after winning the Sunland Park Derby then leading the Grade II Louisiana Derby until being caught at the wire.<\/p>\n
But nothing seemed copasetic about Pavlovian\u2019s stay in Kentucky.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was different weather and a different environment,\u201d said Leandro Mora, an assistant trainer to O\u2019Neill. \u201cIt could have been mental. A lot of horses, when they reach the stage of the Kentucky Derby, learn it\u2019s not for them. He\u2019s happy to be back in California.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ocean Bear, a son of Bolt d\u2019Oro, has won three in a row but will be making his 2026 debut after having a chip in his knee removed. Start the Ride finished second in the Los Alamitos Derby on June 27. Start the Ride was also mentioned as a Kentucky Derby possible when he won the Cal Cup Derby at Santa Anita in January only to subsequently run sixth in the Grade II San Felipe then fifth in the Santa Anita Derby.<\/p>\n
Notable<\/p>\n
Journalism, who was retired after suffering an injury at the start of his winning run in the Grade II San Diego Handicap, departed Del Mar on Tuesday. His new home will be the Coolmore America\u2019s Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Hejazi, a $3.5 million purchase by Zedan Racing as a 2-year-old in 2022, will make his 2026 debut Friday with Juan Hernandez up for trainer Bob Baffert. Hejazi hasn\u2019t raced since running second to Lovesick Blues on July 26, 2025, in the Bing Crosby.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Bessie Coleman ($24) won Thursday\u2019s feature, a six-furlong sprint for older Cal-bred fillies and mares.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Only one favorite (Sugar Reign, $7.20, in the third) won Thursday and favorites are now winning at a 16.67% rate (13-for-78).<\/p>\n
There was not a winning ticket in the Pick Six with the carryover being $31,077.60.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DEL MAR \u2014 A 2026 Kentucky Derby starter and two horses who beat him earlier in his career…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[8506,181,74,76,75,127],"class_list":["post-418995","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\/418995","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=418995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}