Pacific Classic (Grade 1) (BC)- $1,000.000 Purse
DMR- For Three Year Olds and Upward
One Mile and One Quarter on the Dirt
September 3, 2022

In 2018, a three year old horse by the name of Combat Wombat was making his fourth career start in the Pacific Classic. He had been impressive right from the start of his career, so it wasn’t something that was considered an upset. Now, four years later, with most of the 2018 field either deactivated or serving as sires, Combat Wombat was back in the Pacific Classic. The result, in now his 36th career start would be much like it was back then: ending with a trip to the winner’s circle. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to look up whether this has happened before and we’ve had some historical great horses with longevity. But, it if has, with a horse winning a race of this caliber, twice in a four year period, it’s safe to say it is a short list. The win will return him to the BC Classic, which he has surprisingly only been in once, also in 2018 where he was second. Congratulations to trainer Maxmillion Farm, who’s been with this one since the beginning of his racing career! It’s his third win in the race, with the other win being in 2009 with the late Basic Force. Aboard Combat Wombat was Ru Gonzalez, who wins for the first time. The time of the race was 2:00.61, which is faster than he ran the race in 2018. Let’s take a look at it !

(½ Mile- :48.02)- The race begins with a group of four breaking out and battling for the top spot early on, running side by side down the frontstretch and into the clubhouse turn. Running in the third lane here, the Nakamura Stables- trained Mintmach would emerge as being a little quicker and hold a half length advantage over the other three after half a mile. To his outside, On Schedule, from Mb Stables, would be the closest to him and was looking like he may pull even soon in the backstretch. Funny Side was in third, and on the rail for Iolaus Racing while Up In Smoke, from Fractious, was the fourth horse here, but starting to lose a length to him. Meanwhile, there would be three stalkers initially, but because Mintmach started to inch ahead a little bit, the horse that was right behind him, Night Rider Stables- trained Sexy Back, would pull ahead of the other stalkers and actually only be a half length behind Up In Smoke here. Running sixth is the veteran Combat Wombat, our eventual winner from Maxmillion Farm, and he was content to hold a spot about two lengths from the lead. When he won in 2018, he was a deep closer, though that’s a style he no longer uses. Quality Art ran right beside him for Mb Stables. Moving further back, Hard Discretion (TwinTowersRacing), Pluckzy (Gdp Inc), and White Sunshine (Smokey Stover) held spots in the middle of the field with Crimson Rioja (Mo Mentum Farm) a length behind them. At the back, the trailers are Spankersville (The Sidley Stud), Contradiction (Aer Stables), and Splash Mountain (John Henry).

(3/4 Mile- 1:11.73)- Moving down the backstretch, there would be a little bit of side by side movement as jockeys looked for running lanes, but no one that made a push. The main change is that Up In Smoke is no longer able to run with the front group. That leaves them to be a three way battle for the lead and it’s On Schedule the one that can now claim that he was the leader. Funny Cide is second, as Mintmach is a half length behind them now. Sexy Back thought about making a wide move but then decides to stay where he is, in a stalking position with Up In Smoke. Quality Art would look to take a rail opening to push forward closer to the turn while Combat Wombat remained in the middle of the field. After a length or so, Pluckzy looked like he might be considering an outside move as the others held their spots in the running order.

(Top of Stretch, 1.7F To Go)- Around the turn and into the stretch, On Schedule is the leader, and has now been able to pull away from those he was running with. He seemed to be in a good spot for the stretch, but Sexy Back was coming at him pretty strongly on the outside while Funny Cide was still in contention on the rail. Mintmach was dropping out of it, and would find himself passed by Quality Art who was now two lengths from the lead. It looked like, for a brief moment, that Combat Wombat was in trouble during the turn as first the fading Up In Smoke was backing up into him quickly and then Mintmach was also going to be in his lane. He had been passed by Hard Discretion and the quickly advancing White Sunshine, who was in the outside lane. But Combat Wombat was not going to be denied today, and it would also be a great piece of virtual riding by Ru Gonzalez to maneuver the traffic. The result was a horse that was full of run on exit of the turn, getting back by Hard Discretion and White Sunshine with now and unobstructed lane in front of him. He had some distance to make up though, about four lengths, so it was going to be a challenge. Though if there is a horse that can do it, I’ll take the likes of Combat Wombat to do so. Others in the back had not made a run yet and needed to get moving with that now if they wanted a shot.

(Finish- 2:00.61)- On Schedule holds the lead into the stretch, but before he could worry about Combat Wombat, there was Quality Art making the closest challenge and preparing to go by to the inside. For Mb Stables, that was perfectly fine. Sexy Back was battling hard on the outside but lurking behind them was Combat Wombat who passed Mintmach would ease to move into fifth, and cutting the deficit in half to only be about two lengths, now. There would be more than enough time for him at this pace and the determined winner would slide right on in between On Schedule and Sexy Back, with authority to take the lead, passing Quality Art in the process. Approaching the wire, the race had been decided as Combat Wombat pulls away to win the race by half a length. Quality Art is second, and if it wasn’t for Combat Wombat, we would be talking about how he ran very well in the stretch, too, but on this day that would only be good enough for second best. Sexy Back is third, beating On Schedule, who lost some energy in the closing strides. Fifth place Funny Cide lingered with this group for most of the race, but there was never a point in time where he looked like he would be the horse to threaten for the win. It was close to two lengths back to the rest of the field, with Hard Discretion narrowly taking sixth over the way too late running Contradiction. Rounding it out, it’s White Sunshine, Crimson Rioja, Spankersville, Mintmach, Splash Mountain, Pluckzy, and Up In Smoke.

About The Winner- Combat Wombat, trained by Maxmillion Farm, and ridden to victory by Ru Gonzalez is a seven year old gelding by Combastic and is out of the late Five Be Farl. He was bred in California by Our Athletes as a third quarter two year old, and acquired by Maxmillion Farm, via Aer Stables, while he was still unraced, for $20.000 in the March 2018 auction. Congratulations to the connections! The win is his 13th in 36 starts, and his eighth stake win, all of which are graded. He’s also now won three of his last four and four of his last six. His career earnings improve to $4,536.950.

Track: Fast
Time: :48   1:11³  1:35³  2:00³

$2 Mutuel Prices:

$1 Exacta: 8 – 4 Paid 122.90
$1 Trifecta: 8 – 4 – 12 Paid 819.40

Scratched: None

— NS

Categories: Grade I, STAKES ARTICLES