© Zoe Metz Photo
STABLE AREA FILLS UP WITH HORSES AND THEIR HANDLERS
What a difference a day makes. The stable area on the backside at Del Mar is beginning to look more like mid-August. The stalls are filling up, grooms are hustling about, tending to the new arrivals, and the bathing stalls are full of happy horses get their morning baths.
Several horses made their way out to the track Wednesday morning. Only a few of them put in official works. Most just took a jog around the one mile oval to get a feel for the track.
One day closer to opening day and most of the trainers are here preparing for the 31-day meet that begins Friday.
Peter Miller has his usual barn full of horses gearing up for the upcoming meet. Miller spent much of his winter and spring running horses at Oaklawn Park and Churchill Downs.
“It’s good to be back as always,” he says. “We brought everything back from Churchill. It’s very hot and humid (in Kentucky) this time of year but I liked it.”
Miller’s been running horses at Del Mar since back when he started training in 1987.
John Sadler is another veteran of Del Mar. He moved here fulltime in 1980. His much touted Eagles Flight, brother of Flightline, will not run at Del Mar this summer. He’s getting a break from racing but Sadler is still loaded with quality horses.
“We got a full barn,” he notes. “We’re looking forward to the meet. It’s always nice to get out of the heat. This first weekend we’ll have 10-to-15 runners so we’ll be busy.”
Richard Mandella also has a few surprises in store for Del Mar patrons this summer.
“Tamara is here and has started to work,” Mandella notes. “We’re hoping before the meet’s over we can get a race into her.”
Tamara, the daughter of superstar Beholder, was the star 2-year-old filly of the 2023 summer meet at Del Mar but she’s been plagued by injuries and other setbacks the past two years.
Mandella’s other star of the stable, Kopion, may also make an appearance.
“I’m considering stretching her out in the Clement Hirsch,” Mandella says. “But I don’t know. It’s up in the air yet.”
STALL APPS UP FOR SUMMER OF 2025
An early indicator of the kind of meet Del Mar has in store for the summer is the number of stall applications received by the racing office. This year, that indicator is peaking the meter…showing nothing but positive signs days before the gates open on the 86th season at the seaside oval.
Stall applications are up and the number of out-of-state trainers and Northern California-based trainers interested in racing at Del Mar in 2025 is higher than last year. Racing secretary David Jerkens says 167 trainers applied for stalls at Del Mar this summer, up from 151 a year ago. The number of stalls assigned, not including pens, is 1,719, down slightly from last year but for good reason.
“We have a crunch with space,” Jerkens notes, “especially living quarters and so we decided to not assign as many stalls as last year at this stage.”
Several trainers had to be denied stalls at Del Mar but will be accommodated at San Luis Rey Downs in Bonsal or at Los Alamitos up in Orange County. Last year the horse population at Del Mar peaked at 1,881.
“We operate with a number around 1,800 horses,” Jerkens adds. “There was more demand this summer. There was a waiting list. You always want your barn area full and you want competition for stalls. That creates a healthy environment.”
About a dozen out-of-state trainers have applied for stalls including Jose D’Angelo, Brian Lynch, Kent Sweezey and Roberto Diodoro. Easterner Jonathan Thomas invaded the seaside oval last fall and promptly won three Fall Turf Festival races. He’ll be back at Del Mar this summer with even more horses.
There are a few noted trainers who will not be back to race at Del Mar in 2025. Eric Kruljac, who became a fan favorite with his champion The Chosen Vron, has turned his small stable of horses over to his son, Ian. Kruljac turned 72 this year and after 39-years training horses he says he has turned in his trainer’s license and will concentrate on being an owner and breeder.
Also missing from the backside this year will be trainer Todd Fincher, who won the G2 San Diego in 2023 with Senor Buscador. He has decided to stay home in New Mexico and Texas this year. Fincher has always maintained his base in New Mexico where he got started in racing 27 years ago.
Otherwise, it’s the same cast of characters on the training roster at Del Mar this summer. Bob Baffert will be back to defend his training title, the ninth at Del Mar for the distinguished Hall of Famer. Like last year, fellow conditioners Doug O’Neill, Philip D’Amato, Mark Glatt, Michael McCarthy, John Sadler and Peter Miller will all be back with strings of horses in 2025.
The trend of Northern California trainers moving operations to Southern California looks to continue this summer with 164 stalls assigned to NorCal-based conditioners at Del Mar compared to 152 last year. Santa Anita is attributing its impressive numbers this past winter and spring to the influx of Northern California operations moving south following the closing of racing up north last year. It led to increased field sizes and increased handle and attendance.
$7.8 MILLION UP FOR GRABS IN 2025 DEL MAR STAKES PACKAGE
Del Mar will once again be serving up a menu of tantalizing stakes races this summer. Attractive to both the people running the horses and the fans betting them.
The stakes lineup of 38 races mirrors that of 2024 with one exception. The G3 Cougar II, a marathon race for older horses on the dirt, will not be run this summer. Otherwise, all of Del Mar’s popular stakes races return.
There are six Grade I races on the docket, beginning with the Bing Crosby on July 26. The race will be absent two-time winner The Chosen Vron, who retired earlier this year, but it always attracts the top sprinters on the West Coast and on occasion has been known to draw a few from back east.
The remainder of the Grade I contests consist of the Clement Hirsch for older fillies and mares on August 2; the Del Mar Oaks on August 23; the 35th running of the Pacific Classic on August 30 and the traditional pair of juvenile clashes that decide the 2-year-old champions of the meet, the Debutante and the Futurity. They’ll help close out affairs September 6 and 7, respectively.
Nineteen of the stakes races will be run on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course and eight of them are exclusive to Cal-breds. The stakes package for the summer meet, spread out over the 31-days of racing, offers a total $7.8 million in purse money.
As always the marquee race of the meet is the $1 million Pacific Classic, which headlines a fabulous day of racing that provides four additional graded stakes: the G2 Del Mar Mile; the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap; the G3 Green Flash and the G3 Torrey Pines.
Six of the stakes at Del Mar this summer are Breeders’ Cup “Win & You’re In” contests. Three fall on Pacific Classic Day: the Classic, the Mile and the Handicap. The Bing Crosby, the Clement Hirsch and the G2 Pat O’Brien on August 24 also provide participants with the opportunity to win a spot in the Breeders’ Cup which returns to Del Mar this fall.
Opening Day is set for Friday, July 18. Following the opening weekend, the Thoroughbreds will be running every Thursday through Sunday with post time at 2 p.m., except Fridays when they start at four o’clock.
COOLING OUT: Trainer Phil D’Amato says he plans to save last summer’s Horse of the Meet Iscreamuscream for the second half of the meet. “I don’t have her ready to run in the first half of the meet but you might see her later in something like the (G2 John) Mabee,” D’Amato says…Happy times people: A belated happy birthday to trainer Ron McAnally who turned 93 last Friday. The Hall of Fame conditioner, best known for his work with John Henry, will have his small string of horses at Del Mar again this year, his unprecedented 77th summer at the seashore.