Beholder Work Moved After Del Mar Breakdowns

Three injuries within a span of 10 minutes marred the early training session at Del Mar on a hazy morning July 23, forcing Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella to postpone a scheduled breeze for three-time champion Beholder.

"She's going fine, but I've got a stomach ache," said Mandella, who indicated the daughter of Henny Hughes will still gallop Saturday but will now breeze July 24 for her final work in preparation for the July 30 Clement L. Hirsch (gr. I). "The weather is no good today. Spooky."

According to Del Mar's clockers, George Krikorian's Big Book, trained by Tim Yakteen, and a 2-year-old filly named Whisky and Wine from the barn of Jeff Mullins broke down. Big Book was injured near the eighth pole and Whisky and Wine was injured near the quarter pole. Joelito, a stakes-placed 6-year-old horse who hasn't raced since January of 2015, bowed a tendon and will be retired from racing, according to trainer Kristin Mulhall.

Whisky and Wine was euthanized. Big Book fractured both sesamoids in her front right leg, according to Yakteen. Big Book won last year's Fleet Treat Stakes at Del Mar but was later disqualified after testing for elevated levels of acepromazine.

"We're still evaluating her, but she's got a lot of work to do," Yakteen said. "We're hoping to make her a broodmare, but she has a long way to go."

Jockey Flavien Prat, who was aboard Whisky and Wine for the work, came out of the incident without injury. He described the main track as "loose."

"The track was a little bit loose, but it felt like she was fine before," Prat said. "They had three breakdowns in 15 minutes. That's kind of weird. It's part of the game, but it's not easy."

After the injuries, several barns decided to take the rest of the morning off from workouts, including trainer Doug O'Neill, who pushed all his workers back a day. Ron Ellis also decided not to breeze grade I winner Masochistic in favor of a Sunday drill.

Del Mar chief executive officer Joe Harper said after trainining hours concluded that the track superintendent was evaluating an area on the main track near the quarter pole, which was brought up as a point of concern by jockey Tyler Baze.

“My first reaction was, ‘What do we do different?’ (Track superintendent Steve Wood) did nothing different with his crew (today). He was perplexed as us," Harper said. "Baze had a concern about the quarter pole. ... If one guy out of 50 says there's something there, we're going to look at it.

"We'll see if there's something there, or if it was just a fluke."

Alan Sherman, assistant trainer to his father Art Sherman, said he was not concerned about running California Chrome   Saturday afternoon in the San Diego Handicap (gr. II).

"You can't worry about that. It happens," Alan Sherman said. "Unfortunately it happened the day we are in, but you can't second-guess it."

In the second race Saturday, a $16,000 claiming race for fillies and mares, Red Barons Barn's Dutchessa broke down just after the wire. The injury came after a laboring run in the stretch for the John Martin-trained 7-year-old Dutch Art mare, who was making her first dirt start. After fracturing both sesamoids in her left front leg, Dutchessa was euthanized on the track. She had a 7-5-7 record from 33 starts before the race Saturday.