California Racing Moves Forward to Del Mar Fall Meet

As the California racing calendar shifts from Santa Anita Park to Del Mar for the fall meet that begins Nov. 8, there is hope a change in venue can bring a change in outlook.

Following Mongolian Groom's catastrophic breakdown in the Nov. 2 Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) on the penultimate day of the autumn meet at Santa Anita, California horse racing could use some positive energy, the kind Del Mar delivered during its summer meet. Over that 36-day meeting, the track went without a single afternoon racing fatality, providing relief to an industry reeling from a troubled Santa Anita winter/spring meet during which 30 horses died during racing or training.

The Del Mar summer results improved upon those from the preceding summer, when the track had only two fatalities from racing, and from a troubled meet just a few years ago in 2016, according to Del Mar executive vice president of racing Tom Robbins. 

"You can never rest on your laurels in this business," he said. "You have to continue to remain focused, have everybody work together with that one goal in mind."

The 2019 summer meet at Del Mar wasn't perfect—four horses died during training—though two of those were from a freak head-on collision after a loose horse dashed toward oncoming horses. 

As it did this summer, Del Mar will follow the safety protocols in place from the California Horse Racing Board along with its own measures, which largely align with those at Santa Anita. These include restrictions on medication and expanded veterinarian and safety-panel oversight.

With these steps in place—first instituted in March by The Stronach Group, which operates Santa Anita, and then adopted in April for 12 months by the CHRB—the rate of racing breakdowns has been greatly reduced. From Dec. 26 until Santa Anita closed temporarily after its March 3 card to address the safety issues, Santa Anita had a catastrophic injury rate of 4.4 per 1,000 starts.

Since its reopening March 29 through its fall meet that concluded Nov. 3, Santa Anita's catastrophic injury rate was 2.16, less than half the rate at the beginning of the winter/spring meet.

Neither Del Mar nor Los Alamitos Race Course had a single catastrophic breakdown during racing at their Thoroughbred meets that followed. From March 29 through Nov. 3, the equine fatality rate in Southern California racing has been 1.09 per 1,000 starts. Based on Equine Injury Database numbers, that rate is 35% lower than the rate for the United States and Canada in 2018 (1.68).

These numbers do not account for training fatalities, which are not included in the Equine Injury Database. 

Training this fall at Del Mar will be less active than the summer, owing to its 15-day duration, which keeps many horsemen stabled at their regular bases at Santa Anita. The barn area will house about 350-400 horses daily, down from more than 1,900 in the summer, leaving many of its race-day participants as ship-ins, Robbins said.

Just as the Kathryn Crosby Stakes at a mile on grass highlights the opening-day card Friday, an emphasis on grass racing will take place over the meet, which continues through Dec. 1. Of the meet's 14 stakes, only five are on dirt.

Nine of Del Mar's fall meet stakes are graded, highlighted by a pair of grade 1s: the $300,000 Hollywood Derby (G1T) Nov. 30 and the closing-day $300,000 Matriarch Stakes (G1T). Those races are annually popular with East Coast trainers who come armed with shippers. Last year's Matriarch was won by the Chad Brown-trained Uni, who beat males in the Nov. 2 TVG Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T).

"That's the advantage of this time of year. Things are kind of quiet on the national front," Robbins said.

Excellent Sunset is the 5-2 morning-line favorite for Friday's restricted Kathryn Crosby, facing leading opposition from La Sardane, Super Patriot, and Poster Girl.

With a field of nine, the Kathryn Crosby is one of the largest fields on opening day, which drew 66 horses for eight races, an average of 8.25 horses per race. Saturday's card, topped by the restricted Let It Ride Stakes, attracted 68 entries for nine races, an average of 7.56.

Entries: Kathryn Crosby S.

Del Mar, Friday, November 08, 2019, Race 7

• STK
• 1m
• Turf
• $75,000
• 3 yo's & up Fillies and Mares
• 3:34 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1La Sardane (FR)	Mike E. Smith	121	Neil D. Drysdale	6/1
2	2Storming Lady (KY)	Victor Espinoza	121	Alfredo Marquez	12/1
3	3Poster Girl (GB)	Tiago Josue Pereira	121	William Spawr	3/1
4	4Curlin's Journey (KY)	Ruben Fuentes	121	Dallas E. Keen	20/1
5	5Wicked Old Fashion (KY)	Evin A. Roman	121	Victor M. Trujillo	8/1
6	6Free My Soul (KY)	Martin Garcia	118	Jeffrey Metz	30/1
7	7Super Patriot (CA)	Geovanni Franco	125	Richard Baltas	3/1
8	8Lostintranzlation (CA)	Brice Blanc	123	Richard Baltas	8/1
9	9Excellent Sunset (IRE)	Flavien Prat	121	Anna Meah	5/2