Del Mar News
Friday, November 20th
DM Horses Cause Splash at '09 Breeders' Cup
Horses who had raced during the 2009 summer season at Del Mar did well -- and then some -- during the two-day Breeders' Cup World Championships November 6 and 7 at the Oak Tree-at-Santa Anita meeting.
Del Mar raced female horses won the two major events on the Friday and Saturday programs with Pam and Martin Wygod's Life Is Sweet capturing the $2-million Ladies' Classic the first day and Mr.-Mrs. Jerry Moss' Zenyatta scoring a thundering victory over 11 male rivals Saturday in the star-studded $5-million Classic.
Zenyatta's race -- her 14th victory in 14 starts -- is being hailed by many as one of the most memorable in Thoroughbred racing history and has projected her into strong consideration for Horse of the Year honors. During the summer she won Del Mar's Clement L. Hirsch Stakes -- the second year in a row she had done that. Life Is Sweet ran in the same Hirsch this year, finishing fourth to stablemate Zenyatta.
Other Del Mar-raced winners on the Breeders' Cup cards were California Flag in the $1-million Turf Sprint and Dancing in Silks in the $2-million Sprint. California Flag had captured the Green Flash Handicap at the seaside oval this summer en route to his Santa Anita tally, while Dancing in Silks won both an allowance race and the Pirates Bounty Stakes during the Del Mar stand.
Six other Del Mar 2009 runners finished either second or third in their Breeders' Cup races. They were Blind Luck (3rd in the Juvenile Fillies); Free Flying Soul (3rd in the Filly & Mare Sprint); Gotta Have Her (2nd in the Turf Sprint); Crown of Thorns (2nd in the Sprint); Cost of Freedom (3rd in the Sprint), and Lookin At Lucky (2nd in the Juvenile).
Additionally, 25 more horses who had competed at Del Mar this summer ran in the 14 Breeders' Cup races. All told, there were 35 Del Mar runners among the 147 Breeders' Cup starters for the 26th edition of the championship event. That number represents 24% of the Breeders' Cup fields.
Synthetics -- False Issue in Racing
A race horse is born. If you are a cowboy in New Mexico or a gentleman owner in Kentucky, you raise them, you care for them, you teach them their lessons. One day they are old enough to saddle and ride. They are then tested for agility and speed. Thereafter, if the aptitude is there, they are raced. These young horses, like the many thousands before them know nothing about the politics of racing or handicapping. They just accept the man on their back. When the man says; "Yaaaaa", the horse runs in the direction they are pointed. On each and every surface they run. Saddle them, mount them, say yaaaaa, spur them on or encourage them, and they run -- on anything.
If the owner of the horse is living in France, the horse will race on the grass. It will rain sometimes -- many times -- and the horses who have no say in the matter will race on the heavy going, as asked. Whatever the circumstances, these race horses will do what is required of them. Soon, the owner will realize if the horse has the action suitable to firm or off going. After that assessment, he will try and put the horse in a locale that suits, and on a surface the runner handles well. There is some experimenting and many unknowns during this process. Even if the horse is bred to be a champion, one never knows if the horse will act and race like his parents, or if he will have very few of their characteristics. Each day the handicappers of the world bet on first time starters that have no form. They check out the training routine, the breeding, the handlers, and they make their guesses. The horse runs. Some run well, some run poorly. Whatever their ability, their races constitute what is known as their "racing form". If he races on the dirt, his form will be specific to the dirt. If he races on grass, the form is specific to the grass. And when he races on synthetics, his form will be specific to synthetics. When he changes tracks or surface, his form changes -- either for the better or worse. When he changes company, moving in with easier or facing tougher, his form changes. Some horses handle all surfaces well, but will prefer one over the other. Some will race over different distances until the handlers decide which is best. Some will show strong inclinations for certain surfaces and certain distances. Nobody knows what the results will be until they are tried.
Initially, before the racing career begins, the horses will not be thought of as synthetic horses or grass horses or dirt horses, they will simply be; Race Horses. If they race a few times over the California synthetics, many of the handicappers will consider them; Synthetic Horses. If some who initially are owned by California interests are sent to New York or sold to New York interests, they will soon be thought of as; Dirt Horses. But always, no matter their locale or the surface they race over, they retain the qualities of the race horse.
In the beginning, if Zenyatta were sold to another owner, her career would have been different. Yes. But to suggest she is a champion because she races on synthetics is *pure unadulterated nonsense*. If you saw her powerful way of going in the last sixteenth in the Classic, that has little to do with the surface and everything to do with her great athletic prowess. One of the riders opposing Zenyatta in her only dirt race at Oaklawn said; "She went by us in two strides." Another rider, Ramon Dominguez, said of Zenyatta in the same race; "She raced wide and blew by us with her ears like this" moving his fingers back and forth emulating Zenyatta's twitching ears. Garret Gomez echoed that statement when Zenyatta flew by the near champion, Life is Sweet, in a synthetic race; In three strides, she (Zenyatta) went on by." So, those who know the action best agree, that Zenyatta is dominant over both surfaces. There is no evidence whatsoever that she loses or gains anything at all moving from synthetic or dirt. Simply, Zenyatta is a champion with an overpowering finishing kick. IMO, she may have been every bit as good if she were bought by English or French interests and raced on grass. She might have been the eqivalent of Zarkava or Allez France. We can all see now that her racing class is at that supreme level.
Let's do a little mental experiment.. Let's move every single dirt horse in the East and move them to California. Will they then be synthetic horses after they have been here a month? Six months? A year? When do they become synthetic horses? When they race over the surface? When they win? Are they synthetic horses because they are here in California? The answer is none of those. They will be race horses whose recent form is synthetic.
When our Western horses go East for next years championships, how they will fare? Will they transfer their form, or even improve like I Want Revenge, or will they decline? The handicappers in the West will be just as clueless as those in the East. I can tell you one thing for sure, we in the West, won't complain. We will race and do our best.
I've been handicapping the horses most of my life, always in California.. and I can tell you unequivocally, there have been very few Eastern Horses who shipped to the West who immediately adapted to the Californa surfaces -- dirt or synthetic. Loren Retelle, protege of Jack Van Berg, and a great trainer in his own right, particularly with fast horses (Grenzen, Beira, etc..) told me that Eastern horses have different muscling than Western horses .. as the ground they train over is quite different. He even showed me a few Eastern horses while we strolled at Santa Anita and pointed to different areas of the horse for me to note.. Though I had not the skill or the eye to understand all that he conveyed, I easily understood the concept. And IMO, that very same concept applies to synthetic to dirt and dirt to synthetic. My guess is that the Western horses who race over synthetic will not have nearly as much difficulty adjusting to dirt tracks, as the Easterners do to California synthetics for the same reasons mentioned. In comparison, the training over synthetic is perhaps tougher and affects more deeply the horses interior muscling, much like a human athlete training on the beach sand. Therefore, horses training over synthetic may lose some of their brilliant speed... but will gain stamina from their training regimen over the demanding surface. Conversely, horses who train over dirt may be more disadvantaged when sent to synthetics... as their stamina is not quite sufficient to stay over the more demanding surface. There have been many examples in the recent Breeders Cup Championship races of the Easterners not carrying their speed far enough..
This is an interesting phenomenon for me. In years past, from the mid-60's onward, (my years) the Western horses had trouble staying over the sandier eastern soils.. And the eastern horses couldn't quicken sufficiently over the western ground. Now, with synthetics, it appears the opposite is occurring.
But it's always been about race horses racing where we ask them too. In my opinion, most of the synthetic issue is created and fostered by handicappers who WISH that horses were exactly the same racing over synthetics as they are on dirt. But until each horse is given the chance to race and train over the surface, we will not know how good they are... which is no different than a grass horses first outings, or a horse racing over off surfaces.. Until form is established, nobody can know.
But that is the essence of handicapping; It has always been about understanding form with extra rewards for those who guess well.
Give the Gift of Del Mar for the Holidays
A gift certificate from the Del Mar Ticket Office is the perfect holiday (or non-holiday) gift for the racing fans on your list.
Del Mar Thoroughbred Club Ticket Office Gift Certificates--available in amounts from $15 to $250--may be used to purchase Admissions, Reserved Seats or Trackside Dining Tables (subject to availability).
The recipient may redeem the gift certificate beginning May 14, 2010, when the Ticket Office opens for the 2010 summer race meet.
For more information or to purchase your Del Mar Ticket Office Gift Certificates, visit http://www.dmtc.com/season/tickets/.
Five-Day Week Spurs Positives for Del Mar
"The key to most everything we did this summer was the change to the five-day race week. It was overwhelmingly popular and absolutely successful." -- Joe Harper, president and general manager, Del Mar Thoroughbred Club
Del Mar's 70th racing season came to a close Wednesday and -- despite generally hard economic times nationally and a tough go in the racing industry in particular -- the seaside track just north of San Diego had some good news to report.
On-track daily average attendance and handle for the seven-week session ran ahead of last year's numbers with all signs pointing to the track's shortened five-day race week as the triggering element for much of the enhancement.
When the final turnstile had been spun, Del Mar could boast of an average daily attendance of 17,181, an increase of 7.4% over last year's daily tally of 16,002. The 2009 final average daily attendance stands as the track's best gate count since pre-ITW days in California -- all the way back to 1987's daily average of 19,685 to be exact.
In addition, figures out of the mutuels' office show that on-track handle checked in with an average number of $2,292,284 per day, a rise of 5.8% over the 2008 daily average of $2,167,028.
Well prior to the start of the 2009 session, Del Mar petitioned for -- and was granted by the California Horse Racing Board -- a reduction in its number of racing days from a long-standard 43 days presented six-days-per-week, to 37 racing cards run over five days each week between Wednesday and Sunday. The track's reasoning in this regard was based on an ongoing shortage of racing stock, the economy both nationally and in California, as well as a direct-result plan to alter a racing industry that had diluted itself and its product to unprecedented low levels.
It was a classic attempt to make less be more --- and it appears to have worked exceedingly well.
"When we went all out for our dates change," noted Del Mar's long-time leader Harper, "we were reacting to economic circumstances and trying to put some energy back into this wonderful sport of ours. For too long now the idea has been that you can never have enough, a philosophy that, given the reality of the times, no longer holds true.
"The key to most everything we did this summer was the change to the five-day week. It was overwhelmingly popular and absolutely successful. From our racing fans, to our horsemen, to our employees, it has been win, win, win. We offered a better show this summer in so many ways and the across-the-board response to it has been gratifying."
The track also showed growth through its Advanced Deposit Wagering (ADW) platforms, with several new providers on board for the first time, including its own DelMarBets.com, a unique arrangement that has Del Mar sharing profits with its horsemen in the form of added purse money. In-state average daily ADW handle was up over 14%, while average daily out-of-state was even better at a growth of over 22%.
In regard to purses, final numbers were still to being calculated, but it appears likely that the track will show an increase in average daily purses of over 6%, a fact directly linked to its shift to five-day racing. Last year Del Mar's purses were $554,403 per day.
Further on the positive front, Del Mar could brag of turning its Opening Day extravaganza this year into an all-time through-the-gate record when a party-hearty crew of 44,907 kicked off the season on July 22 in rousing fashion. Additionally, its new "Free & Easy Wednesday" promotion, which offered free admissions and seats along with half-priced food and beverage, met with an enthusiastic response from racing fans who signed on readily for the track's Diamond Club cards to access the discounts. More than 20,000 signed up for the program on Wednesdays and the daily average attendance those afternoons jumped from 10,790 to 12,732, a boost of 18%.
"In the face of challenging economic headwinds, we were very pleased with the growth in average daily on-track and ADW wagering," said DMTC's senior vice president and chief financial officer Mike Ernst. "These growth areas helped offset wagering declines in off-track simulcast handle, which is down sharply throughout the country."
The track's overall daily average handle -- when all sources are considered -- came in at $13,040,206, which is an increase of 0.3% from last year's final daily average of $13,005,906. Del Mar's preference in its new five-day racing arrangement is to measure all numbers on a daily average basis, with the belief that this standard is a more consistent measure of actual performance. But even in the case of last year's six racing Monday's being eliminated from the equation and a 37-day-vs.-37-day table being drawn up, the track only showed a 1% decrease in daily average handle on-track from $2,316,577 in 2008 to $2,292,284 in 2009. Under the 37-vs.-37 scenario its attendance was down a tad also at 0.4% from a 2008 total of 638,470 to 635,679.
Total handle for the 37 days came in at $482,487,630, as opposed to $559,253,943 for 43 days the previous year. That was a decline of 13.7%, understandable given the six fewer Monday racing cards.
You'll find the complete release in pdf format here.
