Coming off a sensational performance in the GIII Monmouth Cup in which he earned a 122 Beyer figure, Knightsbridge (Nyquist), will head west to contest the Aug. 22 GI Pacific Classic at Del Mar for his next start.The 1 1/4-mile race will be another test for a horse who, before the nine-furlong Monmouth Cup, had never gone beyond a mile.“We'd love to try to win a Grade I with him,” trainer Bill Mott said. “He's done a lot and proven that he's a talented horse. Naturally, with his being a a stallion prospect, winning a Grade I would go a long way toward enhancing his value.”Mott kept Knightsbridge at shorter distances for the first 10 starts of his career and was rewarded with wins in the GIII Gulfstream Park Mile, the GIII Fred Hooper and the GIII Mr. Prospector Stakes. After a poor effort in the GI Churchilll Downs Stakes, he ran second in the GI Metropolitan Handicap at a mile.“If you ask the question why did we keep him at a mile and seven eighths, we had never been in a situation where we had him fit enough to run longer because his races were spread apart,” Mott said. “He had some big gaps between his races. When we went to Florida in the wintertime, they had that group of one-mile races that we ran in. Once you look at it, it's pretty self-explanatory.”With his winning the Monmouth Cup by 10 1/4 lengths and earning the fastest Beyer any horse has posted this year, it may be that what Knightsbridge wanted all along was to go two turns and a longer distance. But Mott realizes that there is no guarantee that the 1 1/4 miles will be a good fit. He will also have to prove that he can beat Nysos (Nyquist), who is also pointing for the Pacific Classic and defeated Knightsbridge in the Met Mile.“If there was a 1 1/8-mile race out there other than the Whitney, we'd probably go for that rather than the mile and a quarter,” Mott said. “There are a lot of unknowns about this. They say never bet on a horse that hasn't proven they can do it before. He's never done it before. We will be in a learning process. This will be a fact-finding mission. There are a lot of unknowns about what we are doing.”Should Knightsbridge pass the test in the Pacific Classic, that could set him up for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. Mott also has Classic contenders in 2025 Horse of the Year Sovereignty (Into Mischief) and Baeza (McKinzie). Mott understands that a lot has to go right for Knightsbridge to make the Classic, but he also knows that he has a very talented horse on his hands.“You saw what he did at Monmouth,” the Hall of Fame trainer said. “He ran a 122 Beyer. Those numbers have to mean something. He's able to go fast. We know that. It will be a matter of whether he can replicate that against horses like Sovereignty, Baeza, White Abarrio, Magnitude. You never know. Class comes into play. He beat a nice horse at Monmouth in Skippylongstocking, but maybe it wasn't Skippy's best day. I'm trying to be realistic about it.”So far as having so many top older horses, Mott remains cautiously optimistic.“We want to do the best we can with each one and it's a big challenge because there are some nice horses out there,” he said. “If you think you've got the measure of the older horses, then you still have to deal with the good 3-year-olds. It's always challenging. This seems to be a very good group.”The post Knightsbridge Will Go Next in the Pacific Classic appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.