San Diego Handicap (Grade 2)- $300.000 Purse
DMR- For Three Year Olds and Upward
One Mile and One Sixteenth on the Dirt
July 26, 2025

No one would ever say that Frenchman wasn’t good in the morning, consistently running off good work times, but he had not brought that effort into races often enough. As such, there were very few people that felt that he could win the San Diego Handicap, and he would go off as a massive longshot, at 189/1. Perhaps his trainer, Threshold, and jockey B Curtis, fooled Frenchman into thinking this a workout, as the gelding ran the best race of his career, winning by a length and lighting up the board in the process. The win is the first in the race for both Threshold and B Curtis, congratulations to them! The time of the race was 1:40.48, the third quickest in the race’s history. Let’s take a look at it:

(1/4 Mile- :23.28)- A few of them vie for the early lead, and it will be Asgar’s Parisian Arrow having a neck in front out Bigking’s Fire Chase, who runs to his inside. The post time favorite out of Mo Mentum Farm, Want Rum, runs with them as well, and is a half-length to Parisian Arrow’s outside. That one’s stablemate, Chagrin Falls, is in the fourth lane here and about a length behind the leader. It’s then a gap of about two to Rock Creek’s Charming Man, who runs by himself, a length and a half ahead of the final two. That’s where we find our eventual winner from Threshold, Frenchman, as well The Sidley Stud’s Red Vino.

(½ Mile- :46.75)- We begin to make our way down the backstretch, with Parisian Arrow and Fire Chase matching one another’s stride at the front of the field. They’ve inched ahead of Want Rum now by a full length, while Chagrin Falls still runs four wide. We still have the approximate two and a half-length gap back to the fifth place Charming Man, and behind him Frenchman begins to pull ahead of Red Vino.

(Top of the Stretch, 1.5F To Go)- Around the turn and into the stretch, we don’t see any separation between Fire Chase and Parisian Arrow, as they still have the top two spots, but they have company at the front of the field now. Chagrin Falls, despite running wide and being the high weight, had moved forward to join these top two, as Want Rum began to pack it in. Approaching the exit of the turn, we began to see Frenchman hitting his best stride, cutting into his deficit to the leaders, and pulling even with Charming Man for fifth. Red Vino did not have the same type of response.

(Finish- 1:40.48)- Early in the stretch, a lane would open up for B Curtis to take advantage of on the rail, and Frenchman would capitalize. He would quickly make up ground on the front three horses, finally putting it all together in a top race like the San Diego Handicap. Approaching the wire, he had taken over the top spot, leaving the couple people in the stands that bet on him at 189/1 to cheer like crazy and hundreds more pretending that they also bet on him. At the line, the massive longshot wins, getting his act together on race day, and hopefully we’ll begin to see more efforts like this out of him when it matters most. Second place Chagrin Falls ran a solid race, getting the nod on Fire Chase in a photo for place. Parisian Arrow is fourth, followed by Charming Man, Red Vino, and Want Rum.

About The Winner- Frenchman, trained by Threshold and ridden to victory by B Curtis, is a five-year-old gelding by Edge Of Darkness and is out of the late Never Can Tell. He was bred by Wood Duck Stables in California as a first quarter two-year-old, and was acquired by Threshold, via Royalty Stables, almost exactly one year to the day, with a $28.000 claim, right here at DMR. Congratulations to the connections! The win is his fifth in 21 starts, his second stake win and first graded win. His career earnings are now $385.330.

Track: Fast
Time: :23¹  :46³  1:10²  1:40²

$2 Mutuel Prices:

$1 Exacta: 3 – 7 Paid 210.90
$1 Trifecta: 3 – 7 – 1 Paid 1,336.30

Scratched: None

— NS

Categories: Grade II, STAKES ARTICLES