How to use PHQL in a view

I'm trying to make a MySQL query in my view with information I have in it, but that query needs to use "DISTINCT" so I can't use find(). The query is kind of like this

$query = new Phalcon\Mvc\Model\Query("SELECT distinct(id) FROM race where date='$_date");
$query->setDI($di);
$racing = $query->execute();
foreach ($racing as $row) 
{
    echo "the id is ", $row->id;
}

when a use this one i get an error that says Undefined variable: di Unexpected value type: expected object implementing Phalcon\DiInterface, null given

i also tried

 $query = $this->modelsManager->createQuery("SELECT distinct(id) FROM race where date='$_date");
 $racing = $query->execute();
 foreach ($racing as $row) 
 {
    echo "he id is ", $row->id;
 }

but then i get this error Using $this when not in object context

the other way i try was

$rows = Carrera::find(array("distinct" => "id", "date='$_date'"));
foreach ($rows as $row) 
{
    echo "the id is ", $row->id;
 }

after the query gives me the results i want to saved in a variable maybe an array or something so i can compare them later

thanks in advance for any help i'm kind of in a rush to finish this project