Del Mar

Del Mar will conduct its 81st summer racing season between July 10 and Sept. 7 featuring a 38-race stakes schedule offering more than $5.5 million in purses. The meet kicks off on a Friday and will feature the traditional Opening Day headliner, the $100,000 Runhappy Oceanside S. The overall stakes slate consists of 32 stakes that carry purses of no less than $100,000, along with six overnight stakes, each worth $65,000. Twenty-one of the stakes are graded--six at Grade I, 11 at Grade II and four at Grade III. The...

Officials at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club announced that the track will conduct racing on a Friday-Saturday-Sunday schedule through the entire summer and have pushed forward opening day from July 18 to July 10. The track will close with a four-day week ending on Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 7. The schedule is pending the approval of the California Horse Racing Board at its June 11 meeting. "We're coming back and we're going to put on the most unique show in Del Mar history," said Del Mar's CEO Joe Harper. "It's...

The Runhappy bonus program, which will reward owners of 2-year-olds by Claiborne Farm freshman sire Runhappy (Super Saver) $100,000 for winning an unrestricted maiden race at Saratoga first time out, has been extended to the corresponding races at the Belmont meeting, set to kick off the week of June 1. The bonus will be paid by owner Jim McIngvale, who campaigned Runhappy to victories in the GI King's Bishop S. and GI Breeders' Cup Sprint en route to being named champion sprinter of 2015. "We're really excited about the New...

Keeneland Race Course will be seeking a short summer race meet after losing its spring season to COVID-19 closure. Yet management at the Lexington track is trying to be mindful that such a move would have a ripple effect not only on Ellis Park, which traditionally has the Kentucky circuit all to itself during that time frame, but also the horse populations and stakes programs at Saratoga and Del Mar, the bi-coastal heavyweights that dominate American racing in the mid-July through Labor Day window. "We're looking to run an abbreviated...

The longer live racing is suspended in California the deeper the economic toll, which is why the industry continues to push hard for that suspension to be lifted: that was the main takeaway from a broad-sweeping conference call Friday morning, organized by the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC), for industry heads to outline and discuss the impacts from the coronavirus pandemic on racing and training in California. The call was presided over by TOC Chairman Nick Alexander, Greg Avioli, TOC president and CEO, The Stronach Group (TSG) CEO Craig Fravel,...

The financial toll from COVID-19 on the racing industry in California, spurred by the suspension of live Thoroughbred racing, has been sharp and swift. Backstretch healthcare and mental illness services have been pared back, those in charge of other programs reliant on betting revenue are wondering how to bolster coffers if the broader economy nose-dives, while the financial thumb-screws have been further twisted on stretched-thin trainers. What's more, all this is playing out against an economic backdrop that was already shaky. The California Horse Racing Board's (CHRB) latest annual report...

This Sunday marks a year to the day Battle of Midway (Smart Strike) suffered catastrophic injuries during a morning workout at Santa Anita, unleashing a tempest of opprobrium the likes of which the industry has never before faced in terms of intensity and sustained impact. Of course, Battle of Midway's fatal injury wasn't alone the catalyst--the Jerry Hollendorfer-trained Breeders' Cup winner was one of three fatalities at the track within two days. His death was also the 18th to mar the facility since racing had resumed towards the end of...

For an animal blessed with the seemingly incompatible traits of bone-china fragility, jiu-jitsu flight instincts, and combustion engine top-speeds, the horse is understandably yoked to its vision for avoiding harm's way. Because of that, sight is arguably the sense most artificially manipulated in the racehorse to "enhance" performance. Blinkers. Cheekpieces. Hoods to fool the recalcitrant into the starting gate. Mesh goggles for the fractious. Nor does the loss of an eye render a Thoroughbred's evolutionary purpose obsolete. Far from it. One-eyed wonders like Hard Not to Love--recent winner of the...

Given events at Santa Anita in the spring, it was understandable that Del Mar racing secretary David Jerkens approached the track's annual summer meet with both hope and a certain amount of trepidation. In the end, the track achieved what Jerkens called "unprecedented"--the entire seven week, 36-card meet played out with zero race-day fatalities. That works out to 0 for 2,372 starts. Of the four catastrophic injuries sustained during morning training, two were the result of a freak accident involving a loose horse. It's important to note that these numbers...

Jerry Hollendorfer and the California Thoroughbred Trainers (CTT) filed a complaint for emergency relief in the Alameda County Superior Court Monday seeking either a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) or a Preliminary Injunction against the Pacific Racing Association (PRA) which would permit the veteran trainer to stable and race his horses at the association's Golden Gate Fields facility. Just last month, a judge at the Superior Court of San Diego granted the trainer a preliminary injunction against Del Mar, giving him permission to stable and race horses under his name at...

4th-Del Mar, $62,053, Msw, 8-11, 2yo, f, 5 1/2f, 1:04.31, ft. INSPIRESSA (f, 2, The Big Beast--Lucky Trip, by Trippi) wasthe priciest filly and co-fourth topper at OBS March at $850,000. She proved to be the fastest of a promising looking bunch to score first up at Del Mar and become the fourth winner for her sire (Yes It's True). The :20 4/5 breezer quickly emerged between foes to vie for command through an opening quarter in :22.06, before shaking clear and almost appearing to run off through a :45.87...

Trainer Chad Brown brings a three-pronged attack in the latest renewal of the GI Fourstardave H., headed by a pair of Grade I winners--Uni (More Than Ready), winner of the GI Matriarch at Del Mar last December and GI Hollywood Derby victor Raging Bull (Fr) (Dark Angel {Ire}) on the same weekend. Since those victories, Uni has added another victory to her resume in Belmont's June 29 Perfect Sting S., while Raging Bull finished fourth in both Keeneland's Apr. 12 GI Maker's 46 Mile S. and the nine-furlong GI Turf...