Outcome Has Familiar Ring to It : Del Mar: Baffert goes 1-2 in a $1-million race for a second time as General Challenge wins by three lengths over stablemate River Keen in Pacific Classic.

DEL MAR — Trainer Bob Baffert gives out his cell-phone number to too many people. The darn thing will ring at the strangest times.

It rang here Sunday, in the middle of a post-race interview.

“How are things in Hawaii?” Baffert nonchalantly asked of the caller.

The answer to that question wasn’t immediately available, but Sunday at Del Mar, Baffert couldn’t have beaten his day. He saddled General Challenge for the victory in the $1-million Pacific Classic, also running second in the race with River Keen, and an hour later he camped out in the winner’s circle again, following another win by the undefeated Chilukki in the $250,000 Vinery Del Mar Debutante Stakes.

David Flores, who grew up in Tijuana, about 30 miles from Del Mar, rode both of Baffert’s winners before 27,570. It was the first time in Del Mar history that a trainer and jockey had combined to win two Grade I races on the same day.

Baffert’s best chance to win the Pacific Classic was supposed to have been Real Quiet, but his barn is so deep that he was able to reach back for the reserves after the Hollywood Gold Cup winner suffered a season-ending leg injury in a workout at Santa Anita two weeks ago.

General Challenge, the 5-2 second choice, is not exactly the second string. The big chestnut gelding, who does his best when he’s not told much about what to do, won the Santa Anita Derby in April, labored to an 11th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby and then ran two solid races at Hollywood Park, winning the Affirmed Handicap and finishing second to Cat Thief in the Swaps Stakes.

Baffert might have sent General Challenge to Saratoga for last Saturday’s $1-million Travers for 3-year-olds, but he elected to stay at Del Mar, where John and Betty Mabee prefer to run their horses.

“Every time you ship out of town, you don’t take the best of it,” Baffert said.

The Pacific Classic hadn’t been won by a 3-year-old since the Mabees struck with their Best Pal in the inaugural running in 1991. In many ways, Best Pal and General Challenge are joined at the hip: Both are 3-year-old California-bred geldings that were bred by the Mabees. Best Pal, who finished second to Tinners Way in the 1995 Classic, died last November, after a 47-race career in which he earned $5.6 million.

“Winning the original with Best Pal was special,” said John Mabee, who as Del Mar’s board chairman had been instrumental in the track adding a $1-million race. “But we cried some after this one too. This is a race I’d rather win than the Kentucky Derby.”

Because of his age, General Challenge carried 117 pounds, seven less than the other seven starters. Running 1 1/4 miles in 2:00 2/5, he beat River Keen by three lengths, with Barter Town finishing third, another 2 1/4 lengths back. Malek, the 6-5 favorite, finished fifth. He became the eighth beaten favorite in the nine runnings of the stake.

General Challenge broke from the inside post, and was a half-step slow, Flores said, in leaving the gate. Smile Again, Barter Town and Lazy Lode were the early pace-setters, but Flores kept General Challenge within a couple of lengths, and nearing the far turn the colt shot between Smile Again and Barter Town to take the lead.

River Keen, next to last after the first half-mile, made his bid late, and at the five-sixteenths pole jockey Chris Antley smelled victory.

“I thought we were moving faster than General Challenge then,” Antley said. “This wasn’t a [speed-favoring] track today, and it looked like we had a chance. But the winner kept on going when we headed for home.”

General Challenge, winning for the sixth time in nine starts, earned $700,000, including $100,000 in bonus money, to push his purse total to $1.5 million.

Baffert had run 1-2 in a $1-million race before, when Excellent Meeting--owned by the Mabees--chased Silverbulletday across the finish line in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs.

Horse Racing Notes

Chilukki, owned by Robert and Janice McNair of Houston, gave Bob Baffert his third consecutive win and fourth overall in the Debutante. After four wins by overpowering margins, Chilukki had to hold off Spain by one length as she completed seven furlongs in 1:23 2/5. . . . Princess Melissa, who jumped a fence before she left the chute at the start of the Debutante, wound up in a horsemen’s barn-area parking lot. The filly suffered lacerations of her right shoulder. Her jockey, Garrett Gomez, took off the rest of his mounts with a sore neck. . . . . Two other trainers have run 1-2 in the Pacific Classic: Richard Mandella with Gentlemen and Siphon in 1997 and Bobby Frankel with Bertrando and Missionary Ridge in 1993. . . . Manistique, who has won eight of 11 starts, wrenched her right rear ankle and will miss next Saturday’s $400,000 Ramona Handicap. Her next probable race is the Lady’s Secret Breeders’ Cup Handicap at Santa Anita on Oct. 10. . . . Running Stag beat Catienus by a half-length in the $300,000 Saratoga Breeders’ Cup Handicap.