Mark Glatt © Benoit Photo
MARK GLATT SEEKS A REPEAT AS LEADING FALL MEET TRAINER
Trainer Mark Glatt is having a pretty good year. It started last fall when he won his first trainer’s title at Del Mar. He followed that with his first Classic Meet trainer’s title at Santa Anita. Then he was inducted into the Washington Hall of Fame.
That much success could bloat a man’s ego, but Mark Glatt remains grounded, remembering how things can change quickly in this game.
“Anytime you’re the leading trainer at a substantial meet I think it’s good to be a part of,” Glatt says. “But there are a lot of highs and lows to this game. Most of the time it is a very difficult sport and you go through hard streaks. You have to truly appreciate when things are going well.
“It’s a very nice achievement,” Glatt adds. “It’s a good accomplishment for my owners and my employees that work hard on these horses every day.”
Glatt has been training horses for more than 30 years. He grew up on a farm in Auburn, Washington about 30 miles outside of Seattle. He was an assistant trainer for his father who was a very successful conditioner in his own right in the Pacific Northwest. But as soon as he graduated from college in 1994, he took out his trainer’s license and went out on his own.
He started in his home state and won his first stakes race at Yakima Meadows. His induction into the Washington Hall of Fame was his life coming full circle.
“It was very cool,” Glatt notes of his induction. “It was a nice presentation. Anytime you’re in the Hall of Fame of anywhere it’s very satisfying. Multiple people played a big role in that happening.”
His father, for one, was a major influence on his career.
“I think he told me not to be a horse trainer,” Glatt muses. “He trained off of instincts and that’s the number one thing I took from him. Just making sure your horse is as happy and as right as possible.”
In addition to Glatt’s duties as a trainer he’s also a member of the Thoroughbred Owners of California board of directors, one of two trainers on the board. But training horses is his true love.
“I think I’m a lifer,” he says.
Glatt has compiled a laundry list of good horses he’s trained over the years. Dr. Schivel, Sharp Samurai, Dr. Venkman and Collusion Illusion to name a few.
“Sometimes your favorite horses are not always your best horses,” Glatt contends. “Especially if you’ve had them for a fair amount of time. You become attached to certain horses you’ve had for a long time. Horses that overcome odds for one reason or another. I have some horses that are personal favorites but you try to treat them all the same way and give them all the same respect and care that they deserve.”
Sounds like a recipe for success.
FOG DISRUPTS TRAINING, CANCELS WORKS AT DEL MAR SUNDAY A.M.
Another foggy morning at Del Mar all but canceled morning works at the seaside oval Sunday. There was enough visibility to where it was not a safety hazard for the horses and riders so the track remained open, and there were horses training through the morning.
Some trainers went ahead with their scheduled works, but there were no official times to those works. Clockers on the sixth floor of the grandstand, generally the best spot to watch horses on the track, could not see anything from midway through the first turn until about the eighth pole entering the stretch.
“We’ve noted the horses that came through that we had calls on but we have no times,” noted clocker John Malone. “We can’t see anything.”
That’s important because some horses need works required by the stewards so they can race. Training a horse is all about planning and timing. Any interruption, like a canceled work, can be highly disruptive and is avoided if possible.
Fog is not unusual to Del Mar. Even in the summer it can shroud the racecourse in the morning hours. With the cooler temperatures in the fall it tends to be more often and more dense. It can also hang around longer.
Fortunately, the fog lifted enough by 9 o’clock for 20 horses scheduled on the turf to get in their works. That was critical since Del Mar is the only track in Southern California, let alone the nation, that offers turf works this time of year.
TOP TWO-YEAR-OLDS CLASH IN DEL MAR STAKES ACTION NEXT WEEK
The Juveniles take the stakes spotlight next weekend, week three of the Bing Crosby Season at Del Mar. Some of the best 2-year old’s in Southern California that did not participate in the Breeders’ Cup will be on display in the $100.000 Desi Arnaz Stakes on Saturday and the G3 Bob Hope on Sunday. Both are seven-furlong tests on the main track.
Of course you can’t have top-line juvenile races on the West Coast without a few Bob Baffert horses. The Hall of Fame trainer has one filly nominated for the Desi Arnaz and four colts lined up for the Bob Hope.
The Desi Arnaz has a total of eight nominees, two from the Leonard Powell barn, as well as the top three finishers in last month’s $85,000 Anoakia Stakes at Santa Anita. The winner was Baffert's filly Himika, who also won the G3 Sorrento at Del Mar this summer.
Entrees for the Desi Arnaz will be drawn Wednesday. Past winners of the race include Dream Tree, Eda, Justique, and Nothing Like You. Practical Dream won last year’s edition.
The Bob Hope begins a string of ten graded stakes races at Del Mar over the final two weeks of the fall meet. It generally attracts those top-level 2-year-olds who were not ready to run in the Breeders’ Cup.
The G3 Best Pal winner Desert Gate leads the group of Baffert nominees to the race that also includes Buetane, a $1,150,000 purchase by Amr Zedan at this year’s Ocala Breeders’ Sale Spring Sale of Two-Year-Olds in training 2025.
Baffert has nominated a second Zedan Racing Stable colt to the Bob Hope. Boyd was a $1-million purchase by the successful Saudi Arabian businessman at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale 2025.
Ten juveniles have been nominated for the Bob Hope, four by trainer Doug O’Neill. Three of his colts were bred and are owned by Calumet Farm.
Entrees for the Bob Hope will be drawn Thursday. Past winners include Mastery, Mucho Gusto, Messier, Havnameltdown, and Nysos. Bullard won the race last year. Baffert has won the race seven times.
LEADING SIRE COLLECTED MOVING TO CALIFORNIA FOR 2026
In a huge boost to the California thoroughbred breeding industry, Grade I winner and prominent young sire, Collected will be moved from Airdrie Stud in Kentucky to Rancho San Miguel in San Luis Obispo for the 2026 breeding season. He’ll stand for $7,500 with a live foal and nursing guarantee.
Collected may be best known for his 2017 G1 Pacific Classic win at Del Mar. He defeated Arrogate that day and went on to run second to Horse of the Year Gun Runner in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. He was one of three finalists for Champion Older Dirt Horse that year.
The Bob Baffert trainee for owner Speedway Stables finished his racing career with eight wins out of 15 starts and with earnings of $2,975,000. He was retired to Airdrie Stud in 2019.
There he became a successful sire. From four crops to race, he’s produced 20 black-type winners, seven of them graded, and progeny earnings of over $18 million. That includes the filly Taxed, who won a Grade 2 and earned over $1.1 million. She sold Monday for $750,000 at the Fasig Tipton November Sale at Keeneland.
Collected also sired this year’s King’s Plate winner, Mansetti; Conclude, winner of the 2024 G2 Del Mar Derby and 2025 G2 Del Mar Mile and Thought Process, winner of the 2024 Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar and the G2 San Clemente this summer.
“Collected has been an absolutely rock-solid Kentucky sire, and he now has the opportunity to stand as California’s premier stallion,” said Airdrie Stud President Bret Jones in a press release announcing the move. “His California training roots and the great success his progeny have enjoyed in the state should guarantee his popularity. We are thrilled to give California breeders access to a stallion that can truly help their programs.”
The 12-year-old instantly becomes California’s number-one stallion based on 2025 progeny earnings with over $6.3 million. He’s currently one of North America’s leading fourth-crop sires.
“We are overjoyed and extremely honored to have been entrusted by Airdrie to take the reins of Collected’s breeding career,” said Rancho San Miguel Owner Tom Clark. “In addition to being a familiar runner to our target audience from his years of competing at the highest levels here in California, he is in peak form as a stallion thanks to Airdrie’s expert management. We are proud to now do our part along with our longtime friend and client Marsha Naify to help cement Collected’s legacy.”
Marsha Naify, respected businesswoman, philanthropist and former chair of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, is involved in the partnership to relocate Collected to California. She plans to breed her band of broodmares boarded at Rancho San Miguel to Collected and plans to purchase additional mares specifically for the sire.
“Partnering with Airdrie and Rancho San Miguel is a natural extension of the strong commitment I have made to the California breeding and racing industry over the past 25 years,” Naify said.
Collected will be available for viewing at the Rancho San Miguel Open House and Stallion Show at the farm on December 6. Breeders are invited to attend the free event.
COOLING OUT: The Chosen Vron winner Man O Rose came out of his race in good order, trainer Jeff Mullins reported Sunday morning. As for plans for the Cal-bred’s next race Mullins said, “We’re going to get him a drink of water and something to eat and then we’ll decide.” When asked about Man O Rose racing in 2026, Mullins said “Don’t know.”…The Del Mar Fall Meet tends to provide a chance for trainers to get their foot in the door in California. In Saturday’s sixth race. Brendan Galvin, a veteran trainer who has raced at Del Mar in the past, won his first race ever at the seaside oval with Horizon Wildcat…Kopion has left the building. “She’s been retired and is going home to be bred,” trainer Richard Mandella says of the talented filly. She was scheduled to ship up to Santa Anita from Del Mar this morning and then to Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky on Tuesday. The daughter of Omaha Beach finishes with a 10-5-3-0 record and $1,204,700 in earnings. She won the G1 La Brea at Santa Anita and the G1 Derby City Distaff at Churchill Downs before running second to Seismic Beauty in the G1 Clement Hirsch at Del Mar this summer. She most recently ran fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint against the boys….Notable works on Sunday: Turf – Almendares (4f, :51.00); No Nay Hudson (4f, :51.20), and Mrs. Astor (5f, 1:04.80).