No sooner had the Pacific Classic been inaugurated in 1991 than it immediately became the richest and most prestigious race of the season at Del Mar, the sunshine track on the Pacific coast of southern California where famously the ‘turf meets the surf.’

Over all those years the dirt Group 1 has only once been won by a filly or mare but most of the talk as Sunday’s race approaches is about a five-year-old distaff who has never even taken on the boys in her 18-race career nor has competed as far as this 2000m journey.

The Bob Baffert-trained Juan Hernandez-ridden Adare Manor is that mare and, though with eight smart males standing in her way on Sunday, there is no arguing about her outstanding performances this year, most recently when whistling past her rivals to repeat her 2023 win the G1 Clement L Hirsch Stakes (1700m) here in early August.

The 71-year-old Baffert has broken countless training records including at Del Mar, and has already won the Pacific Classic seven times. Brilliant tactician Hernandez is the track’s dominant rider and has few doubts about the extra stamina required in this challenge for which Adare Manor will start from stall seven.

“She has always given me the feeling that she could go further,” said Hernandez – who has ridden her in her last eleven starts – after some recent morning work. Tactically, Hernandez is likely to sit chilly but a slow pace could see him pushing this versatile mare to a forward position.

Likely to threaten the mare for favouritism is Dr Venkman (Antonio Fresu) who is the least experienced in the line-up but has barely put a foot wrong in five lifetime starts – winning three times and finishing second twice. He fended off the reopposing Katonah (Tiago Pereira) in the San Diego Handicap here last time, though the latter deserves plenty of credit for that one-length defeat after returning from a lengthy absence.

Also leaving the impression that this Californian track was right up his street was Full Serrano (Reylu Gutierrez) whose trainer John Sadler has captured four of the last six runnings of the Pacific Classic. Argentina was where Full Serrano established his quality, but he made new friends and gave the impression that he had more to offer when winning on his first US start, over 1600m here in August. And he is a proven winner over this longer journey, in a Stakes event in Argentina.