Del Mar Set for July 24 Return to Racing

After canceling racing July 17-19 because 15 jockeys tested positive for COVID-19, Del Mar will hit the reset button for a resumption July 24. The reopening comes after a required 10-day quarantine for riders after the tests were taken July 14.

In part due to three lost days last week, Friday's card is deeper and of higher quality than the July 17 program. Eleven races are carded, up from last week's nine, and among them are the $125,000 Fleet Treat Stakes for California-bred 3-year-old fillies and the $65,000 Daisycutter Handicap for female turf sprinters. The latter race was one of four stakes moved to this week after the suspension of racing.

Del Mar, like other tracks across the country, is restricting its riding colony to in-state jockeys—a safety measure meant to reduce the chance of COVID-19 infection. Under Del Mar's new policy, local jockeys who leave the track to ride at other venues will not be allowed to ride again at Del Mar for the remainder of the summer meet.

Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith was the last to ride out of state before the full implementation of the new rules, guiding Authentic to a victory in the TVG.com Haskell Stakes (G1) at Monmouth Park July 18. He cleared COVID-19 testing this week, said Tom Robbins, the executive vice president of racing at Del Mar.

Though Smith was tested, the 15 COVID-19-positive jockeys from last week at Del Mar were not required to do so to resume riding, according to the protocols established by Del Mar, its local health department, and Del Mar's healthcare adviser, Scripps Health, Robbins said.

Instead, they must be symptom-free for three days without the treatment of any medicine, he said. Most were asymptomatic and all quarantined for 10 days under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations.

"These aren't rules we're making up," Robbins said. "We're relying on the experts out there in the county health department and CDC guidelines."

Other racetracks have required COVID-19-infected jockeys to retest in order to resume riding. Luis Saez, who tested positive at Keeneland July 10, was retested this week and showed no indication of COVID-19 before his scheduled return Friday at Saratoga Race Course.

"We were a part of that in New York, and we agreed with it. It's in everybody's best interest," Jockeys' Guild president and CEO Terry Meyocks said of follow-up testing. 

He said Del Mar conducted a conference call with California riders and medical representatives and that Darrell Haire, a Jockeys' Guild regional manager, is in California on behalf of the organization. 

Besides riders, jockeys' room personnel were tested last week, and the track planned to test assistant starters and pony people July 17, Del Mar officials said during a Thoroughbred Owners of California teleconference July 16.

When racing resumes Friday, Del Mar's jockeys' quarters will expand, allowing for further distancing of riders and jockeys' room personnel. In addition to its usual facility, an auxiliary facility constructed of walled tent areas will be in use on the horse path from the customary jockeys' quarters.

To offset lost racing, the track added an extra race day July 27 after approval from the California Horse Racing Board and has expanded races per day. The July 25 card also has 11 races, highlighted by champion Maximum Security's presence in the San Diego Handicap (G2), a race postponed from last week.

"We're anxious to get back and looking forward to a return, and at some point hoping to get owners back in here," Robbins said.

Del Mar is running without fans and owners as a COVID-19 health precaution, and owners have been restricted to watching morning workouts from a portion of the grandstand.