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DEL MAR — Bill Mott was nearly 2,500 miles from Del Mar on Saturday night, but if you listened closely as the field raced down the backstretch in the $1 million Pacific Classic, you probably could hear the Hall of Fame trainer scream.

Thirty years ago, Mott brought Cigar to this same track for this same race, hoping his superstar horse would set the modern-day North American record for consecutive victories. But Cigar, at odds of 1-10, got caught up in a speed duel and wound up losing to a 39-1 long shot named Dare and Go.

Now it seemed like it might be happening again.

Knightsbridge went off at odds of 11-10 instead of Cigar’s 1-10 and he wasn’t racing for history, but the race took on an eerie similarity as the favorite dueled head-and-head with Full Serrano for much of the 1¼ miles. And they were going fast — not quite as fast as Cigar but close enough (1 minute, 10.02 seconds to 1:09.29) for some anguish.

“I thought maybe they were going a little too fast down the backside,” Mott told Del Mar publicity by phone from Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

He had no way of knowing, but so did his jockey.

“I was a little worried we were going a little too fast,” Junior Alvarado said.

As it turned out, neither man had reason to worry. Knightsbridge had a short lead as the two horses passed the mile marker, and when they straightened out in the stretch, the race was over. He continued on, Full Serrano weakened, and the others were too far back.

The final time was 2:02.28, with Original Sin 6¼ lengths behind in second and Full Serrano third. Om N Joy, the first filly to try the Pacific Classic in a decade, finished fourth, followed by Hit Show, Malarchuk, Forged Steel, British Isles, Navajo Warrior, Subsanador and Finger, a Japanese 3-year-old.

With the victory, worth $4.20 to his backers and $600,000 to owners Godolphin, Knightsbridge earned an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Oct. 31 at Keeneland. But whether he runs in that race or the Dirt Mile will be a decision for Mott and Godolphin, who also have Sovereignty, last year’s horse of the year and the top-ranked horse in the Breeders’ Cup’s initial poll for Classic contenders.

“They’re two different horses,” said Alvarado, who rides both. “It’s nearly impossible to [compare]. This horse carries a lot of speed. The other horse has a hell of a turn of foot coming for home … from the half-mile all the way to the wire, very strong at a mile and a quarter. I don’t recall having such a strong finisher like Sovereignty. So it’s going to be interesting. We got time just to decide what we’re going to do next.”

The idea that Knightsbridge would even be under consideration for the 1¼-mile Classic would have been unthinkable until last month; his first 10 career races were all around one turn at either seven furlongs or a mile. But Mott decided to try him at 1⅛ miles in the Monmouth Cup on July 18 at Monmouth Park, and the 5-year-old son of Nyquist won by 10¼ lengths in a time that earned him the fastest Beyer Speed Figure of the year (122).

With the West Coast handicap division weakened, Mott figured it was a good time to try the Pacific Classic again. He had won the race in 2008 with Go Between and enjoyed other successes here, including last year’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff with Scylla, but he also had to scratch Sovereignty from last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic when the horse got sick.

Now he has another positive memory — his second win in Del Mar’s signature race, which has been won by only two other trainers not based in California, Todd Pletcher (Fierceness last year) and Dale Romans (Dullahan in 2012).

“It was quite impressive,” Mott said. “They went quick, but gosh he had something to finish with.”

The victory completed a Grade 1 sweep Saturday for Alvarado, who one race earlier captured the $300,000 Del Mar Oaks aboard Tam Tam ($7.40) for trainer Philip Bauer.

How did he plan to celebrate?

“We’re going to celebrate it going back to New York tonight on the red-eye flight,” he said, smiling.

In the other Breeders’ Cup Challenge race here Saturday, the 5-year-old gelding Sorrento Sky ($16), ridden by Umberto Rispoli for trainer Phil D’Amato, earned a spot in the Turf Sprint by capturing the $200,000 Green Flash Handicap by a length over No Nay Hudson. D’Amato and Rispoli also won the $300,000 Del Mar Mile with King of Gosford ($12.40).

The crowd of 15,187 was a 13% increase from last year. The mutuel handle of $29.14 million was the second highest in Del Mar history outside of the Breeders’ Cup, surpassed only by $36.02 million in 2021 when there was a Pick 6 carryover and mandatory payout.

The achievement is breathtaking. Recognition is growing. The fastest known time is hers.

Ultrarunner Sophie Woods will have more to say after a few well-deserved full night’s sleep. For now, consider her unvarnished secret to traversing a mountainous 1,242-mile trail network through Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, France and Monaco in 28 days, 17 hours and 59 minutes — nearly a week faster than anyone else has been known to do so.

“Just one step. That’s all you have to do. Just one step forward,” Woods said on Instagram.

Woods earlier reported the record time as 29 days, but corrected it in an email to The Times on Monday, saying she and her husband George “were all so exhausted they hadn’t calculated correctly.”

The Via Alpina course follows the length of the Alps with elevation equivalent to climbing Mount Everest a dozen times. The length is a nice round number in kilometers — 2,000. The total elevation climbed was roughly 110,000 meters, an average of 12,000 feet of daily vertical ascent per day.

Yet another number is equally impressive: Woods is 42 years old.

Woods, who competes using her maiden name Sophie Amy Grant, set off on July 4 in Trieste, Italy, and finished on the Mediterranean coast of Monaco. She endured heatwaves, storms, wildfires and a swarm of horseflies. She ran, climbed and hiked 14 to 18 hours a day, covering 40 to 50 miles before getting a few hours of sleep in a van, tent or occasionally a hotel room.

“I am ecstatic but knackered,” she told BBC Sport. “I’m really tired.”

She ate and drank what would be expected of someone exerting herself to the nth degree. Energy gels containing carbs, electrolytes and amino acids along with a sprinkle of caffeine were essential, but Woods also splurged on McDonalds and mounds of pasta when she met up with her husband, photographer Zoe Salt and dog Nila at day’s end. She estimated that she consumed close to 7,000 calories a day.

The first week was the toughest, with Woods describing her feeling “a thousand pulled muscles,” but by halfway through the journey she told Her Sports that “things still ache now, and by the end of the day my feet are definitely ready for a rest, but I currently only have one small blister on my heel, which I’m calling a huge win. All things considered, I’m feeling really good.”

Sophie Woods runs a route on Via Alpina at Klausenpass by Hotel Meiringen on July 20.

(Zoe Salt)

The previous fastest known time in the Via Alpina was 35 days, 21 hours by British runner Jake Catterall, 34, in 2024. Tessa Caspers, 33, set the fastest women’s time for the route at 38 days, 2 hours last year.

Catterall might need to update his website, which claims not only the Via Alpina record but others including an arduous mountain trek in North Africa and a 3,500-mile mad dash across the entire length of Europe, from Norway to Andalusia, Spain.

He knew all about Woods’ effort, however. On day 20 of her journey, Catterall met her in Switzerland after she had traversed “a particularly spicy descent on a sketchy section of via ferrata,” according to Woods’ Instagram.

“Safely back at base camp, she was met by a brilliant surprise,” the post read. “Waiting to cheer her on was @jakecatterall — the current Via Alpina FKT holder — who had gone out of his way on the journey to his own adventure just to support Sophie. It was such a thoughtful gesture, and one that gave everyone a real lift.”

FKT is short for the “fastest known time” that a person or small group achieves on a particular course, usually somewhere it would be difficult or impossible to host an actual race.

To submit an FKT, the route must be at least five miles long or have at least 500 feet of climbing. Some are very short — the Manitou Incline in Colorado is less than one mile long but climbs 1,900 feet and begins at 7,000 feet of elevation. Others such as the Via Alpina and the Appalachian Trail are thousands of miles long.

For verification, GPS information must be submitted to the FKT website. The route can be linked by uploading it to Strava, Garmin Connect or another online training platform. FKT has not verified Woods’ record yet.

Woods’ mark likely will be tested by another runner, although someone else her age and gender completing the Via Alpina in fewer than 29 days would be a challenging feat.

Woods is from New Zealand and she and her husband spent a decade in London before living in their camper van for years while traveling throughout Europe, finally settling in Andorra, a tiny principality situated in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain.

And it is there Woods will rest for a spell.

“I’m absolutely ecstatic,” she said on Instagram a day after she completed Via Alpina. “I still can’t believe that we did it.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Golden Tempo closed out the Triple Crown season Saturday the same way he began it: In the winner’s circle.

The circumstances were different from the Kentucky Derby, when the late-running son of Curlin was helped by a hot pace that tired out the front-runners.

There was no such setup in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, but Golden Tempo showed he didn’t need it.

Ridden again by Jose Ortiz, the Derby champion stormed into the stretch and outfinished Commandment to win a thrilling stretch duel by 1¼ lengths at Saratoga Race Course.

“Golden Tempo is amazing. Jose is amazing,” said trainer Cherie DeVaux, who added to her historic win as the first woman to capture the Derby by becoming the first woman to win two Triple Crown races.

“Amazing feeling,” she said on Fox Sports.

Golden Tempo was sent off as the co-fourth choice with Commandment at 6-1 and returned $14 for a $2 win ticket. Renegade, the Derby runner-up, finished third as the 17-10 favorite and Chief Wallabee, the second choice at 5-1, was fourth. The rest of the finishing order: Emerging Market, Growth Equity, Vitruvian Man, Ottinho and Powershift.

This marked the second straight year the Derby winner also captured the Belmont after skipping the Preakness, with Golden Tempo following Sovereignty. It’s the fifth time in the past six years that a horse used that formula to win this race.

Could Golden Tempo have won the Triple Crown?

“It’s not something I want to think about,” DeVaux said. “We made our decision and he won today and we’re going to be happy about that.”

Trainer Cherie DeVaux lifts the August Belmont Trophy as she stands next to winning jockey Jose Ortiz, left, after Golden Tempo’s victory in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday.

(Al Bello / Getty Images)

Golden Tempo, a homebred of owners Phipps Stable and St. Elias Stables, won for the fourth time in six starts. He earned $1.2 million from the $2-million purse to push his career total past $4.6 million.

Despite his victory five weeks ago in Kentucky, the general feeling about Golden Tempo entering the Belmont was pessimism. Not one of the 19 experts surveyed in Saturday’s Daily Racing Form selected him to win, with just two picking him second. The consensus was he would not finish in the top four.

The lack of pace was one reason, and sure enough, the race played out pretty much as expected, with Renegade’s stablemate, Powershift, dawdling through the first six furlongs in 1 minute, 12.38 seconds, about a second and a half slower than the same distance for the Derby (1:10.90).

Golden Tempo, ridden by jockey Jose Ortiz, crosses the finish line to win the Belmont Stakes on Saturday.

(Yuki Iwamura / Associated Press)

As he was in the Derby, Golden Tempo was last for more than half the race, but Saturday he trailed eight horses instead of 17 and never was more than about eight lengths behind the leader.

Growth Equity, who had been stalking Powershift, took the lead as the field turned into the stretch, but he soon was passed by Chief Wallabee. Before the field had run another furlong, though, Golden Tempo had moved around Renegade to the front. Commandment was on Golden Tempo’s outside but was unable to get past in the final furlong. In fact, the winner was pulling away as they reached the finish.

The final time wasn’t fast, 2:03.49 for 1¼ miles at Saratoga, which was hosting the Belmont for the third and final year while Belmont Park is rebuilt. The race started about five minutes after rain began falling in upstate New York.

Baffert’s Nysos dominates Met Mile

Nysos crosses the finish line to win the 133rd running of the Met Mile at Saratoga on Saturday.

(Yuki Iwamura / Associated Press)

The afternoon did not begin well for trainer Bob Baffert, who saw his top 3-year-old, Crude Velocity, routed by DeVaux’s Englishman in the Woody Stephens and his leading sprinter, Imagination, come up empty in the True North. But Nysos, the best horse in Baffert’s barn, salvaged the day — and then some — with a dominant win over Journalism and five others in the Grade 1 Met Mile.

“I’ve always thought he was one of the best horses in training and today he showed it,” Baffert said of the 7-5 favorite, who returned $4.94 after clocking 1:34.85, just 0.13 off the track record.

The victory was not without an anxious moment or two. Jockey Flavien Prat rushed Nysos to the lead out of the gate, but when he was joined on the pace by Antiquarian, Saudi Crown and Knightsbridge, the jockey dropped Nysos back to fourth place at the midway point.

“When he took him back I just thought, ‘I hope he knows what he’s doing,’” Baffert said.

Not surprisingly, Prat did. After Knightsbridge passed Antiquarian on the far turn, Prat took Nysos around those two as they moved into the stretch and pulled away. Knightsbridge was four lengths back in second with Journalism another three-quarters of a length behind in third.

“It felt like down the backside, the pressure from the outside never really stopped,” Prat said. “I figured I had to give him a chance, knowing he was carrying 126 [pounds] and he hasn’t run for [four] months, and it just played out good. When I tipped him out, he gave me a great run.”

It was the eighth win in 10 lifetime starts for Nysos, a 5-year-old son of Nyquist. He was second in the two defeats.

“He’s one of the best horses I’ve ever trained,” Baffert said.

The victory earned Nysos a berth in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile in October at Keeneland, but the horse won that race last year and Baffert has a bigger prize in mind.

“We’re going for the Classic,” he said, mentioning the Aug. 22 Pacific Classic at Del Mar as a possible race to bridge the gap between now and Oct. 31.