Del Mar records slight decline in handle, attendance for
75th meeting
Del Mar‘s Thoroughbred season raced to a finish Wednesday, nicely closing out a 36-day run that saw high-caliber racing
for the 75th time alongside the blue Pacific at the popular summer
playground.
Large purses and full fields were abundant for the
2014 meeting, and the track’s signature event, the Pacific Classic, might have
provided a coming-out for one of the most dynamic young horses in the sport.
Total purse money for the seven-week session is estimated
to reach $26,030,000, meaning a daily average purse figure of $723,000, which is
second highest in the nation and above the track’s record figures of 2013. The
track’s 2014 purses are the highest in the country among tracks not supplemented
by casino funds.
Field size continued to be among the very best nationally
at 8.8 horses per race, equal to the numbers of the 2013 stand. Those field size
figures were supplemented once
again by the track’s successful “Ship and Win” program, now in its fourth year.
This season the shore oval drew 187 out-of-state runners into its lineups via “S&W,” a 26
percent jump from the 149 starters it lured in 2013.
Though there was one less day of racing — 36 days in
2014 vs. 37 in 2013 — there were only two fewer races (326 as opposed to 328)
due to individual races being added to cards throughout the summer.
Additionally, Del Mar’s premier race, the $1 million
Pacific Classic, may have been the coming out party for one of the most exciting
young horses to appear on the scene in quite a while when undefeated
three-year-old Shared Belief scored a 2 3/4-length victory over a stellar field in front of a national
television audience. The Eclipse Award-winning gelding, owned in part by radio
and TV sports celebrity Jim Rome, currently is projected as a serious factor for
the Breeders’ Cup Classic and national honors.
Preliminary final figures showed that Del Mar’s overall
daily average handle slid 7.3 percent to $12,087,844 when matched up against its
exceptional 37-day numbers from 2013. Attendance, meanwhile, was down slightly
by 6.3 percent to 16,535 per day. By way of perspective, the track’s 2014 mutuel counts
were not far off its 2012 standards for daily average handle which was
$12,396,871 per day.
“In 2013 we had one of the finest seasons in Del Mar
history,” track president Joe Harper noted. “This year we rode the roller
coaster a bit, but overall we’re happy with another fine meeting. Our horsemen
responded wonderfully to what was offered and the racing, as always, was
topnotch. Now we’ve got an exciting new fall season to look forward to.”
The seaside track will conduct a first-of-its-kind fall
meeting this year from November 7 to November 30.
On-track handle was off 11.3 percent on average from $2,174,588
per day in 2014 vs. $2,452,080 in 2013, while California Advanced Deposit
Wagering checked in up 0.1 percent ($1,979,319 in ’14 against $1,977,021 in ’13).
Additionally, ITW handle registered in the plus column at 0.4 percent ($3,988,833 in
’14 vs. $3,973,557 in ’13), aided, undoubtedly, by the addition of several new
mini-satellite locations in the southern half of the state.
The 2014 season turned out to be a digital success story for Del Mar. The
unveiling of the mobile-friendly main website completed the 100 percent “responsive”
transformation across all digital platforms. Usage of Del Mar sites was nearly
an exact 50/50 split between desktop devices and mobile/tablet devices with more
than nine million pages viewed during the meet. On-track mobile
wagering surged during the summer, topping 2013 in every category. Notably, the
total handle was up more than 15 percent, despite one less day of racing.
Rafael Bejarano won his fourth Del Mar leading rider title
while Jerry Hollendorfer and Peter Miller tied for the training crown at Del Mar’s
2014 season.
The 32-year-old Peruvian jockey registered 42 firsts at the
36-day session, easily outdistancing his nearest rival following a furious final
week of winning activity, including capturing 10 races from 16 mounts on the
final weekend of the stand.
Bejarano, who won the 2008 riding title at Del Mar prior to
capturing the last three in a row, finished 10 wins in front of Hall of Fame
rider Kent Desormeaux (32 wins), who was riding the shore meet for the first
time since 2005.
Hall of Famer Hollendorfer, 68, has been nearly invincible
over the past three decades with dozens and dozens of meet titles in Northern
California but, until he tied for first at the recent Santa Anita spring meet,
had never won a crown in the south. Miller, 47, a rising training star on the Southern
California circuit, was winning his second Del Mar championship after taking the
2012 training title at the shore.
Both trainers tallied 20 winners over 36 days.
A victory by Daddy D T in the Oak Tree Juvenile
Turf on closing day provided the boost that made Kosta and Pete Hronis, who race
under the nom de course of Hronis Racing, winners of both ownership categories
at the Del Mar race meeting for the second year in a row.
In 2013, Hronis Racing won the money title with $625,050 to
$600,000 for the ownership group of Game On Dude, whose sole victory came in the
Pacific Classic. Entering Wednesday’s final day of the 2014
meeting, Hronis Racing was second, with $573,490, to the Jungle Racing LLC and
partners whose Shared Belief provided $600,000 with a Pacific Classic triumph.
Then Daddy D T, under Corey Nakatani and trained by John
Sadler, won the Oak Tree Juvenile to provide a $60,000 winner’s share of the
purse that pushed the Hronis stable to $633,490 and the money title.
It was the eighth win of the meeting for Hronis Racing, two
more than runner-up Reddam Racing LLC of J. Paul Reddam. In 2013, the Hronis
brothers shared the win title win Nick Alexander and Kaleem Shah with six each.
Shared Belief, whose victory in the Grade 1 Pacific
Classic extended his undefeated record to a perfect six-for-six, was a unanimous choice as Horse
of the Meeting and top three-year-old by vote of the Del Mar media.
Trained by Hollendorfer
and ridden by Mike Smith, Shared Belief passed defending race champion Game On
Dude in the stretch and went on to a 2 3/4-length victory to become the fifth
sophomore to defeat elders in Del Mar’s signature event.
Tom’s Tribute was also voted best in two categories. The
four-year-old chestnut colt — owned by the Braly Family Trust, trained by Jim
Cassidy and ridden by Smith — won the Eddie Read and
Del Mar Mile Handicap to secure the vote in both the top grass
horse and top older horse categories.
Joining Shared Belief as other unanimous winners were
Goldencents, runner-up in the Bing Crosby and winner of the Pat O’Brien,
in the sprint category and Del Mar Debutante winner Sunset Glow as the top
two-year-old filly.
Four-year-old filly Iotapa, who took the Clement L. Hirsch, garnered honors in the older filly or mare division and Del Mar Oaks
vixen Personal Diary was voted the top three-year-old filly.
American Pharoah, who prevailed in the meeting’s
traditional closing-day featured Del Mar Futurity, was voted the top two-year-old.
“He was one of my best two-year-olds coming down to Del Mar. But in his first
race he acted up in the post parade, was really a mess and then ran poorly,”
trainer Bob Baffert said of American Pharoah. “After that my wife Jill looked at
me and said ‘That’s one of your best two-year-olds? It’s going to be a long
summer.’
“We took the blinkers off, put cotton in his ears and schooled him a lot. He
trained well, we decided he was ready and we put him in there. Today, he behaved
himself and showed what he could do. He did what we thought he’d do the first
time.”
| TITLE | WINNER | |
| Horse of the Meet | Shared Belief | |
| Top older horse | Tom’s Tribute | |
| Top older filly or mare | Iotapa | |
| Top sprinter | Goldencents | |
| Top grass horse | Tom’s Tribute | |
| Top 3-year-old filly | Personal Diary | |
| Top 3-year-old | Shared Belief | |
| Top 2-year-old filly | Sunset Glow | |
| Top 2-year-old | American Pharoah |
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