By Duane Fonseca -
In one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Grade 1 Pacific Classic, Doug O’Neill’s maiden winner Mixto turned up with the winning mix at Del Mar to stage a massive upset and bring rider Kyle Frey a first ever top-tier success.
Victory was the highlight of Frey’s nearly 14-year career in the saddle and the 32-year-old admitted “this is the biggest day of racing in my career, no doubt!”
A four-year-old Good Magic colt, Mixto’s only other victory in 11 starts had been in a mile event at this venue last November. And partnered by Frey for the very first time, he burst forward after the gates opened, racing in the shadows of Full Serrano, trained by John Sadler and guided by Reylu Guttierrez.
Full Serrano went looking to make all with Gutierrez putting his mount under a ride early on, but Mixto and Frey weren’t done and turned on the head in the straight in the company of Bob Baffert’s Reincarnate (Juan Hernandez), who tore down the centre of the track.
Mixto, though, had plenty left in the tank and continued to gain consistently, hitting the front 50m out and winning with a half length to spare from Full Serrano. Reincarnate was a further half length back in third.
Frey added: “The original plan was for me to go to the front. But in the paddock I asked Doug if somebody goes crazy in there, are you OK with me taking a hold? He said, ‘Sure.’ So he was okay with plan A and plan B. (Mixto) came running for me. So sweet.”
O’Neill praised both horse and rider commenting: “As the race unfolded Kyle had Mixto in the perfect spot, and he just ran lights out.
“He gave us a few hints of being a special horse, but today he really validated the horse he is. When you look at his PPs, he’s run in a lot of different places, and he’s always been surrounding them, and today it just unfolded perfectly, and Kyle Frey just rode a perfect race.”
With the Pacific Classic an automatic qualifier for the Breeders’ Cup Classic over the same course and distance on November 2, Mixto’s connections will be hoping he can carry his winning form forward and add a second top-tier success to his resume.
