Arrogate Set for Second Half Kickoff

The $180,000 winner's share of the GII TVG San Diego H. represents a shade over 1% of champion Arrogate (Unbridled's Song)'s current all-time leading career earnings of $17,084,600, but Saturday's Del Mar feature is merely a means to an end for the hulking gray, who makes his first start since a jaw-dropping victory in the G1 Dubai World Cup Mar. 25. Having long since cemented his spot in conversations about the game's all-time greats, Arrogate enters the San Diego eyeing a likely three-race Del Mar campaign that stops off in the Aug. 19 GI Pacific Classic en-route to the Nov. 4 GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

With the only blemish on his record coming in a tough-luck third-place finish in his debut last April, Arrogate has since reeled off seven straight wins–including four consecutive victories in Grade I events. The Bob Baffert trainee delivered one of the most memorable performances in recent memory with a front-running 13 1/2-length demolition of the GI Travers S. in August and closed out 2016 with a defeat of eventual Horse of the Year California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit) in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic Nov. 5. Honored as champion sophomore colt of 2016, he picked up where he left off with an easy triumph in the inaugural running of the $12-million Jan. 28 GI Pegasus World Cup. His crowning achievement to date, however, came in the G1 Dubai World Cup. Never more than three lengths off the lead in his previous starts, the gray was left at the start and rallied from a seemingly impossible position to claim victory by 2 1/4 lengths over MGISW Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}).

Arrogate returned to the worktab in early June and has, by all accounts, handled an increased workload with ease in preparation for his return to the races, culminating with a bullet six-furlong move in 1:11 flat at Santa Anita July 15. The colt will be joined in the starting gate by stablemate Cat Burglar (Unbridled's Song)–one of three rivals exiting in the June 24 GIII Precisionist S. at Santa Anita. Cat Burglar was a distant second behind Collected (City Zip) that day. Third-place finisher Accelerate (Lookin At Lucky), also third in last November's GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, is the only San Diego entrant aside from Arrogate with a previous win over the Del Mar main track.