With Hurricane Hilary approaching from the south over the next 24-48 hours, officials at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club announced early Saturday morning that the live racing program scheduled for Sunday would be canceled.
“For the safety of everyone involved–our horses, our riders and all the workers, staff and fans–we have made the decision to cancel Sunday's races,” DMTC President and COO Josh Rubinstein said Saturday morning. “Unfortunately, the forecast calls for substantial rain and winds that appear to be headed our way. We are hopeful this will only be a one-day thing for us, but it is a necessary step we feel we have to take.”
It will mark only the second time in the seaside track's 84-year history that a program has been lost to the weather. In 2019, its Thanksgiving Day card was called off ahead of a projected storm.
Many horses at Del Mar are housed in outside pens on the backside, constructed with chain-link fencing and plastic tarps as roofs. These pens are especially susceptible to a heavy rain and wind event.
Trainer John Sadler, who has a couple dozen in outside pens, told the Del Mar notes team that he is planning to move them to empty stalls on the backside or to Los Alamitos. Trainer Carla Gaines also found temporary housing for her dozen or so horses, but George Papaprodromou has several horses he needs to shelter before the arrival of the hurricane Saturday night.
“I'm full, I don't know what to do,” Papaprodromou told the notes team, adding that he was hopeful of finding appropriate accommodations for the horses.
Trainer Dan Blacker also has a dozen or more horses outside, but they are housed in a more sturdy structure, with actual walls not fencing.
“Those roofs, the water runs off of them pretty well,” Blacker says. “It's the more outdoor pens you gotta worry about.”
Sunday's nine-race program was to be highlighted by the Solana Beach S. No word was immediately available on the rescheduling of the race.
Track officials have indicated that no individual make-up day will be scheduled in light of the loss. Instead, the plan is to arrange to work in many of the planned races on different days over the course of coming weeks.
According to a text sent to horsepeople, the main track and training track will be closed both Sunday and Monday, with both ovals expected to re-open to all activity on Tuesday.
Del Mar has a 31-day schedule this year which started Friday, July 21 and goes forward to Sunday, Sept. 10. Racing is conducted on a Thursday-through-Sunday basis primarily with the addition of an extra card Labor Day Monday, Sept. 4.
Racing will resume at the track next Thursday with a 2 p.m. first post.
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