Evacuation Efforts Underway at San Luis Rey

Evacuation efforts for horses at San Luis Rey Training Center are underway due to a brush fire Dec. 7 that broke out at and around the Bonsall, Calif., facility.

According to trainer Cliff Sise, horses at San Luis Rey were released from their stalls in order to avoid burning barns and have been running free within the facility since the afternoon.

"There are horses running all loose down here," Sise said. "People have lost horses. Barns have burned down. It just happened so fast that (we) had to do something."

Trainer Scott Hansen, who was saddling a horse for a race at Los Alamitos Race Course Thursday, said he knows some of his horses have died, but is still waiting for the final total. He estimates 8-10 have died.

"I wish we would have made that decision (to let horses out of their stalls) a little sooner, but to turn racehorses loose on a racetrack is not a safe thing," Hansen said. "It was a last resort. We heard vans were en route, but they didn't get there in time. It still hasn't sunk in."

Later in the day, Sise provided further detail of what occurred at Hansen's barn.

"I heard them screaming, so I was able to get the webbing off of some, but the fire was so bad, I couldn't get to them all," Sise said.

Billy Koch of Little Red Feather Racing said Oddsmaker, an unraced 2-year-old, also died in the fire.

"We lost our best 2-year-old," Koch said of the Phil D'Amato-trained Morning Line  colt. "I don't know what to do with myself. ... Total devastation."

Trainer Sam Scolamieri, who was on the ground at San Luis Rey, estimates half of the training center's barns have been burned down. Barns closer to the track and at a lower elevation were in the area where the fire was worst, while barns farther away from the track at a higher elevation were safer.

Doug O'Neill's assistant trainer, Leandro Mora, said the O’Neill San Luis Rey string was largely OK, but gave a chilling account of the devastation.

"We’re very blessed that the majority of our horses are fine," Mora said. "We had to let some horses loose and were very lucky to put 10 on two different vans right away. Four are at Del Mar, four are (at other facilities), and some are roaming around. ... I saw two horses burn to death, running around on fire. They were all just running around so wild. We saw one break down, probably his hip, from running around, and we found out later they put him down.

“I never thought in my life that I’d see something like that."

Trainer Richard Baltas said his barn is intact and all of his horses are in their stalls. Baltas, whose main string is at Santa Anita Park, is attempting to get to San Luis Rey, but hasn't been able to as of Thursday afternoon.

"I'm trying (to get there), but my barn is standing and isn't burned," Baltas said. "But my assistant Ruben is on the roof with a hose to make sure everything around the barn is wet."

Del Mar chief operating officer Josh Rubenstein said the racetrack is open to any evacuated horses from San Luis Rey and will have no problems handling the full capacity of the training center, which has between 400-500 horses stabled there.

"We will take every single horse we can get," Rubenstein said. "We're open to anything with four legs."

Del Mar racing secretary David Jerkens said at 5:30 p.m. PT vehicles with horses and other animals have been consistently arriving at the racetrack. Feed has been provided by West Coast Feed, while volunteers and staff are working to get stalls ready and bedded for the incoming animals.

This story will be updated.