 Jon Lees | |
|---|---|
| Jon Lees is an award-winning racing journalist who was senior news reporter for the Racing Post for 20 years, before that he was chief racing correspondent for Britain’s national news agency, the Press Association. He was named Racing Reporter of the Year at the HWPA Derby Awards in 2013. He has travelled extensively covering horse racing, attending his first Breeders’ Cup in 1994. Since 2018 Jon has been a freelance, writing for The Times, the Telegraph, At The Races and Breeders’ Cup, working in PR for Ladbrokes and Newbury racecourse, and regularly contributes to the website horseracingplanet.com. | |
Del Mar Racecourse – Track Analysis (Pacific Classic Day):
Located on the west coast of southern California, Del Mar Racecourse looks out onto the Pacific Ocean from the seaside resort of Del Mar, which is about 32 km north of San Diego and 160 km south of Los Angeles.
The racecourse main track comprises a 1600-metre oval with left-handed bends, with chutes for races over 1400m and 2000m, with a 280m run from the last turn to the winning post. The turf course, which is inside the dirt track, is one of the tightest in the United States, a 1400m flat oval which has a diagonal chute for races over 1700m and 1800m. The distance from the last turn to the winning post is 249m.
The G1 Pacific Classic is for three-year-olds and upwards, run over 2000m on dirt. It is the premier race of the Del Mar summer meet.
Its former winners include Best Pal, Candy Ride, Beholder, California Chrome and Flightline, who won the race by a record margin of 19 ¼ lengths before going on to add the Breeders’ Cup Classic, for which this is a ‘Win & You’re In’ contest.
Bob Baffert has won the race seven times and from 2017 only he and Flightline’s trainer John Sadler have captured the prize.
The weather forecast for Del Mar during the week is for prolonged dry, sunny weather and no rain predicted. As a result the going on the main track is expected to be fast.
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