Arrogate beaten again

Darryl Sherer - Sunday August 20

Trainer Bob Baffert saddled the quinella in Saturday's Grade I Pacific Classic (1m2f) at Del Mar with the outsider of the pair winning.

Collected holding off Arrogate to win the Pacific Classic. Photo: Del Mar/Benoit

Arrogate went to post the 3/5 favourite for the $US1m contest with stablemate Collected at $8. Martin Garcia set a conservative pace in front on Collected and the signs were not promising for favourite backers as Arrogate came under a ride off the back straight.

Arrogate plugged away and reduced the deficit to a half length at the finish but could not get past Collected. Accelerate, winner of the Grade II San Diego Handicap last time out, finished 4 1/4-lengths further back in third.

Collected went into the Pacific Class having won the Grade III Precisionist Stakes at Santa Anita by 14 lengths

Currently the highest-rated horse on the IFHA World Rankings, Arrogate won the Breeders' Cup Classic last November, the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park in January and the Dubai World Cup in March before being given a break but the four-year-old has looked a shadow of that horse in his two starts since.

"Collected's a good horse," Baffert said on NBCSN. "He's been training well down here. Arrogate looked like he wasn't gonna get any part of it.

"I feel a little better about Arrogate. At least we got him going the right way. At least he showed some courage today."

Victory in the Pacific Classic earned Collected an automatic start in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar in November.

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