The 69th Del Mar racing season, which concluded Wednesday, wasn't bad. But it felt a little off kilter, a little different, from other meetings we've known and generally loved over the years.
Why was that? Don't really know, but here are a few thoughts.
This year the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club – which leases the facility from the state to run the meeting – was like a bystander caught up in events not of its own making and circumstances beyond its control.
The DMTC did all the usual things with concerts and promotions to attract casual or non-racing fans and create the fun and festive atmosphere that had led to on-track attendance and total-betting figures that made the track annually No.
1 in California and one of the tops in the country.
It still is. But business numbers on track and overall were down. Predictable and predicted before the meeting started considering the state of the economy, high gas prices, etc.
Advance Deposit Wagering (ADW) – phone and Internet betting – in California was down 3.51 percent after showing increases for the Santa Anita and Hollywood Park meetings. All because an ADW “experiment” that had opened up betting on those tracks to subscribers to all ADW providers ran out before Del Mar started, and TVG didn't budge on giving up anything for the final year of its exclusivity agreement regarding Del Mar.
Predictable, predicted and also out of DMTC control.
Then there was the steroids controversy. The dates the California Horse Racing Board set for the phase-out of certain steroids previously allowable for horses coincided with Del Mar. CHRB officials were hoping that, given considerable advance notice, trainers would comply and cleanliness would reign, starting at Del Mar.
They didn't take human nature into full account.
So the CHRB chose the Monday of Pacific Classic week to raid the barn of leading trainer John Sadler and let the word out that Sadler and Mike Mitchell, who wound up second in the trainer standings, were the leaders in steroid positives. Meaning they were the leaders in violation of the spirit if not the letter of the law since the point where strict punishment for positives would be invoked was not yet at hand.
And on Pacific Classic eve, in the covered passageway between the paddock and the track, you had an assistant for Sadler and an associate of trainer Bruce Headley engaging in physical confrontation over “cheating” accusations.
Certainly not predictable but, given the circumstances, not shocking and certainly out of DMTC control.
On the track, there were performances like those of Zenyatta in the Clement Hirsch Handicap, Go Between in the Pacific Classic and the consistent excellence of Rafael Bejarano in winning the riding title in his first full Del Mar season to delight fans.
Off the track, there was the sobering news of a suicide in the stable area and the sad sight of jockey Matt Garcia, in racing silks, being handcuffed in the paddock and led away by sheriffs' deputies before the first race one day.
Del Mar '08 wasn't bad, but it could have been better. It was kind of weird. Enough that it's difficult to recall any weirder.
Meet champions
Pacific Classic winner
Go Between was named Horse of the Meeting and top older horse in the annual media poll conducted by the DMTC. Other divisional honors went to:
Zenyatta (older filly or mare),
Street Boss (sprinter),
Whatsthescript (grass horse),
Lethal Heat (3-year-old filly),
Madeo (3-year-old),
Stardom Bound (2-year-old filly) and
Midshipman (2-year-old).
Closers
Bing Crosby Handicap winner Street Boss, owned by Headley, Del Mar's
Marsha Naify and
Simon Yu, will stand stud next year at Jonabell Farm in Lexington, Ky. Darley Racing of
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum of Dubai, which owns Jonabell, has Street Boss' sire,
Street Cry, on its stallion roster. Street Boss is being pointed for the $2 million Breeders' Cup Sprint on Oct. 25 at Santa Anita. Darley takes over ownership after that.
Horses from the stable of Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel went 0-for-21 at Del Mar with two second-place finishes and eight thirds. For the past several years Frankel has spent the summer in New York with his first-string runners and left the West Coast contingent in the hands of assistant Humberto Ascanio. But this is believed to be the first time the Frankel stable has blanked at Del Mar since 1973, when Frankel burst on the scene to win 21 races and the first of five meet training titles.
Hank Wesch: (619) 293-1853; hank.wesch@uniontrib.com
