Del Mar Fall Meet Ends With Record Daily Wagering

Del Mar completed its sixth fall race meeting with a weekend of graded turf stakes, offered the country's top wagering signal for November, and had a record increase in daily average wagering.

The track's wagering over the 13 days established a new standard for the autumn's Bing Crosby season with daily average handle climbing by 8.9% to $11,291,574. Previously, the highest wagering mark during the fall sessions was $11,004,979 during the 14-day meet in 2017. Total handle this year was $146,790,457.

Average attendance matched last year's figures at 4,627 per day.

"First and foremost, we greatly appreciate the support of our horsemen," said Tom Robbins, the track's executive vice president for racing. "Working with them, we put on a quality product that the wagering public responded to very positively. For the first time during our fall meets, we had to deal with inclement weather, but I am delighted with how both of our surfaces performed. We send out well-deserved, special salutes to Dennis Moore, who handles our main track, and Leif Dickinson, who oversees our turf course."

The Nov. 21 and Nov. 28 cards were canceled ahead of time because of inclement weather. The Nov. 21 card was canceled six days ahead with rain forecast for the days leading up to the card. The Thanksgiving Day card was canceled four days out, also because of rain. 

Del Mar will finish the year as one of the safest tracks in the country in terms of catastrophic injury during racing, which is tracked by The Jockey Club Equine Injury Database. Del Mar finishes the racing year with 0.62 equine deaths per 1,000 starts—under the EID standards—well below the 1.68 per 1,000 starts at United States tracks in 2018. The 0.62 rate means that such incidents did not occur in 99.94% of starts.

On Nov. 30, the penultimate day of the fall meet, the 3-year-old gelding Koa broke down during training and was euthanized. Koa was trained by Hall of Fame conditioner Jerry Hollendorfer, who in late June was ruled off racetracks owned by The Stronach Group, including Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields, after four of his horses suffered fatal injuries since Santa Anita's winter/spring meet. Originally, Del Mar did not allot stalls to Hollendorfer during the summer meet or allow him to compete, but a court order allowed him to train and race there.

During the fall season, Del Mar became one of a half-dozen major industry members in founding the Thoroughbred Safety Coalition, a group that will implement a series of significant safety, medication, operational, and integrity guidelines across Thoroughbred racing to ensure the well-being of horses and jockeys and increase transparency and accountability.

Responding to weather, the track's racing office shuffled its stakes slate and presented seven graded grass races over the final two days, offering a lineup of East Coast runners, riders, and trainers shipping in for a chance at $1.3 million in purses. Among those stakes were the Hollywood Derby (G1T), won by locally owned and bred Mo Forza, and the Matriarch Stakes (G1T), captured by invading top filly Got Stormy. The seaside racing headquarters presented 14 stakes during the stand.

Even with inclement weather, the track was able to muster a field size of 7.4 per race, which compared favorably to 2018's 7.7 total.

Del Mar's race for top jockey went down to the final day, with last fall's riding champ, Drayden Van Dyke, and newcomer Abel Cedillo tied for the top spot. Cedillo, a native of Guatemala who switched his business from Northern to Southern California this year, took the crown with 13 winners to Van Dyke's 12.

Richard Baltas was the top trainer, saddling 11 winners for his first fall title. He shared a summer training crown with Phil D'Amato in 2017.

The top owner at the fall session was Gary Barber of Los Angeles with $246,171 in purses, most of it on closing day when his filly Got Stormy captured the Matriarch. The top owner by wins was Hronis Racing with four.

"We are pleased with the results of our fall season," said Del Mar's president and COO, Josh Rubinstein. "It is a meeting that continues to grow stronger. Next year we'll expand a week to five weeks total. And, of course, in 2021 our fall meet will host the Breeders' Cup once more."