Del Mar

Jockey Antonio Fresu watched the 2023 GI Kentucky Derby on television. Though from Italy, he understood the importance of the race and knew that everybody, be it a jockey, trainer, owner, aspires to win it. But he had no reason to believe that he'd ever win the Derby, let alone ride in it. In late April of last year, just eight days before the Derby, he had started riding in the U.S. at Santa Anita. He was unknown and unproven to the trainers in the U.S. "I came here to...

Del Mar Thoroughbred Club has scheduled a 31-day/39 stakes program topped by its premier offering--the 34th running of the $1-million GI FanDuel Racing Pacific Classic slated for Saturday, Aug. 31. Del Mar is also projecting a total purse distribution of more than $26.6 million over the course of the eight-week season. The shore oval's 85th summer session staged alongside the blue Pacific opens Saturday, July 20 and races ahead to Sunday, Sept. 8. The Pacific Classic will be the highlight of a rich afternoon that will feature five graded stakes,...

On the back of a 2023 racing calendar which saw no racing fatalities, the 2024 summer season at Del Mar will feature among the nation's highest prize money as well as a 'robust' lineup of trackside events, the club announced Monday. Marking a historic shift, opening day will be held on a Saturday--July 20--for the first time since the 1950s due to a scheduling adjustment with the San Diego County Fair running through July 7. Tickets for opening weekend and the summer racing season will go on sale Friday, May...

After a long lifetime marked by notable wins on the racetrack and in the business world, prominent owner-breeder, entrepreneur and philanthropist Marty Wygod has passed away aged 84. "I have so many good memories of Marty Wygod. I was telling Emily [Bushnell, Wygod's daughter] this morning, one of my favorite things about Marty was he had a great sense of humor," said trainer John Shirreffs, who conditioned some of Wygod's heaviest hitters on the track. Wygod, said Shirreffs, was also something of a prankster. "The first time I met him...

SUNLAND PARK, New Mexico--Todd Fincher cuts an easy path along the apron through the Sunday crowd at Sunland Park, giving nods and an occasional smile as he goes. It's closing day at the track and a homebred owned by Kirk and Judy Robison from his shedrow just won the Island Fashion S. Sporting his standard duds, including a ball cap, creased jeans and shades, Fincher has his modular phone slung on his belt, ready to be drawn from its holster. "Busy," replies the New-Mexico based trainer when asked about how...

The California Authority of Racing Fairs has formally recognized a group of owners, breeders and trainers in Northern California to serve as an advisory committee for the upcoming Pleasanton race meet. According to a press release, the committee has been informally in place since the announcement of the closure of Golden Gate Fields. The group will work with representatives in the industry to "address challenges and opportunities in real time and ensure that future CARF decisions have the collective support of the industry stakeholders." "Our Advisory Committee has the experience...

The way California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) chair Greg Ferraro describes it, the now infamous letter in which 1/ST Racing and Gaming appeared to threaten the sale of Santa Anita should the board grant the North its desired 2024 race dates was "a very big mistake" on their part--one that helped sway the board's unanimous decision to side with interests in the Northern half of the state. "It really put a bad taste in the mouths of board members," Ferraro said. Beforehand, Ferraro had anticipated punting a decision on the...

While tickets go on sale to the general public Apr. 22, fans can register for pre-sale access to tickets for this year's Breeders' Cup championship weekend at Del Mar at BreedersCup.com/2024. A broad range of seating options for the event were unveiled Tuesday at BreedersCup.com/Tickets. The Breeders' Cup returns to Del Mar for the third time Nov. 1-2. Ahead of championship weekend, Breeders' Cup and Del Mar will invest more than $5 million to create new seating areas and expanded hospitality offerings, including construction of a luxury chalet that will...

A deal that Del Mar has made with a titan of Computer Assisted Wagering (CAW) provides a rare glimpse into the tremendous sway that individual players can wield over track and racing officials, the potentially lopsided economic ramifications of such deals, and the tremendous pressures that California executives are under with competing jurisdictions that enjoy purse subsidies not available in the Golden State. It also turns a spotlight onto a world largely hidden from the public eye-one that industry leaders are generally loathe to discuss publicly, and in which just...

Trainer Mark Glatt is weighing his options for the promising Judge Miller (Curlin). The lightly raced 4-year-old, a jaw-dropping winner while making his route debut in an optional claimer at Santa Anita Feb. 24, has been nominated to Oaklawn's $600,000 GIII Essex H. and the $500,000 GII New Orleans Classic at Fair Grounds. Both races will be contested at 1 1/8 miles and are slated for Saturday, Mar. 23. "He's nominated to a couple of stakes coming up, but I don't know what we're doing with him yet for certain,"...

The GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic and the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Turf will both receive individual $1-million purse increases, Breeders' Cup Limited announced Tuesday. Beginning with this year's 41st World Championships at Del Mar, the purse of the 1 1/4-mile Longines Breeders' Cup Classic will increase from $6 million to $7 million, while the purse of the 1 1/2-mile Longines Breeders' Cup Turf will increase from $4 million to $5 million. This raises total purses and awards for the Breeders' Cup World Championships, Thoroughbred racing's most prestigious two-day event,...

Jockey Basil Frazier, Grade I-winning mare Flag de Lune (Flag Officer), and racing writer/broadcaster Jon White will be inducted into the Washington Racing Hall of Fame this summer, Emerald Downs announced Wednesday. Washington's Horse of the Year in 1984, Flag de Lune was a multiple stakes winner on dirt, including the inaugural running of the Longacres Lassies S., and became a Grade I winner on turf when she won the the 1984 Ramona H. at Del Mar. A native of Spokane, Washington, Frazier rode in Canada and the United States,...