Del Mar Grandstand © Evers Photography
FAMILIAR, BUT DIFFERENT, DEL MAR FOR McANALLY
Like everyone else, Hall of Fame trainer Ron McAnally is looking forward to the familiar, but expecting the different, when the 81st summer racing season begins this Friday at Del Mar.
As usual, early that morning, he’ll be at his customary perch on the balcony overlooking the track outside the barn where his horses have been stabled for decades. The spot where he watched champions Bayakoa, John Henry, Paseana and Tight Spot train for stakes victories and Candy Ride putting in an inspiring work before providing McAnally and owners Sid and Jenny Craig a coveted victory in the 2003 Pacific Classic.
“I’m there every morning. Wouldn’t miss it,” McAnally said in a recent phone call.
McAnally first came to Del Mar as a 16-year-old in 1948 working for his uncle, trainer Reggie Cornell, and first had horses there on his own in the late 1950s. McAnally is second on the track’s all-time list for trainer stakes victories with 77, behind only the record 133 that Bob Baffert keeps adding to and making more unreachable.
This will be his 60th summer at Del Mar. No trainer can match that.
Many things will be different at Del Mar 2020. And specifically for McAnally, for the first time, the meeting will be underway when he celebrates his birthday. This Saturday he turns 88.
The last time Del Mar was in session on July 11 was 1945. Opening day of a season that welcomed back racing after three years lost to World War II. In subsequent years the meeting has generally commenced a week or two later in July, allowing for preparation time for the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club following the end of the San Diego County Fair around July 4. But the postponement of this year’s Fair due to the COVID-19 pandemic made an earlier start to the race meeting possible.
Ron’s birthday is part of an eventful weekend for the McAnally family. She’s Our Charm, trained by Ron for his wife Debbie, is entered in the seventh race on the opening-day card. Friday is also the birthday for the McAnally’s daughter, Laura, which they plan to celebrate in conjunction with Ron’s on Saturday.
“He’ll go to the track in the morning. We’ll have his favorite Marzipan cake for his birthday later,” Laura said. “It’ll be a small gathering, just family. But I know that if he could bring the horses to the house, he’d be a complete man.”
McAnally’s dedication to the animals was such that when Santa Anita was shut down and protocols put in place, McAnally continued to go to the track to supervise care daily. Despite some family protests about the risk.
“He’d say, ‘The horses got me to where I am today and I’ll never turn my back on them’,” Laura said.
FIELD OF 12 SET FOR OPENING DAY OCEANSIDE STAKES
A dozen 3-year-olds were entered Tuesday for Friday’s 75th running of the $100,000 Runhappy Oceanside Stakes, the traditional opening day feature as Del Mar kicks off its 81st summer racing season.
The one-mile event on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course is the first of the three stakes on grass that comprise the track’s series for sophomores. The Oceanside will be followed by the 1 1/16-mile, $125,000 Grade III La Jolla Handicap on Sunday, August 9 and the 1 1/8-mile, $200,000 Grade II Del Mar Derby on Sunday, September 6.
Oversubscribed and run in divisions for 20 straight years starting in 1986, the Oceanside will be undivided for the seventh year in succession. It was won in 2019 by John Sadler-trained Jasikan, owned by Hronis Racing, with Flavien Prat aboard. Sadler is sitting out a suspension for the opening weekend but his assistant, Juan Leyva, will saddle Heywoods Beach for Hronis. Jose Valdivia, Jr. will be in the irons.
Prat has the call on El Tigre Terrible for Peter Miller, who also will send out Silardi.
“Silardi is a speed horse and El Tigre Terrible can sit off the pace, so they have complimentary running styles,” Miller said of the geldings. Both will be stretching out from turf sprints and going two turns for the first time.
“You never know until they do it, but the pedigree for both says they’ll handle the distance. But if I had to guess, I’d say it might suit El Tigre Terrible better than Silardi,” Miller added.
The field from the rail: Rookie Mistake (Mario Gutierrez, 15-1), El Tigre Terrible (4-1), Howbeit (Evin Roman, 30-1), I’m Leaving You (Geovanni Franco, 30-1), Kanderel (Juan Hernandez, 12-1), K P All Systems Go (Abel Cedillo, 6-1), Hit The Road (Umberto Rispoli, 7-2), Tizamagician (Victor Espinoza, 6-1), Ajourneytofreedom (Ricky Gonzalez, 15-1), Silardi (Ruben Fuentes, 8-1), Heywoods Beach (12-1) and Margot’s Boy (Drayden Van Dyke, 8-1).
COMING IN HOT: CHAMPS OF SOUTHERN CAL MEETINGS
Flavien Prat continues to rule the Southern California jockey roost. The defending Del Mar summer riding champion – he notched 42 wins, 10 more than Drayden Van Dyke – comes in off a victory at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting. The 27-year-old Frenchman had 90 wins in the COVID-interrupted marathon meet to 61 for runner-up Abel Cedillo and 50 for newcomer Umberto Rispoli.
Juan Hernandez, who recently relocated to Southern California after securing several titles at Golden Gate Fields, tied with veteran Edwin Maldonado for riding honors at the seven-day Los Alamitos meeting which ended Sunday, each with six wins.
Multiple Del Mar training champion Peter Miller, who fell three wins short of Doug O’Neill here last summer, took Santa Anita honors with 35 wins, two more than Bob Baffert and four ahead of Richard Baltas.
Baffert claimed the Los Alamitos title with four wins in what was a spread-the-wealth meeting as 43 different trainers and 52 different owners/partnerships won the 57 races offered.
ICYMI: MAXIMUM SECURITY AIMED FOR S. D. ‘CAP
As first reported in the Daily Racing Form, Eclipse Award winner Maximum Security is being pointed for his first start since February in the Grade II San Diego Handicap at Del Mar on July 18.
Bob Baffert now trains Maximum Security. He told the Form's Steve Andersen the horse “looks fantastic,” and didn’t back off that statement any when the 4-year-old son of New Year’s Day, in part owned by Gary and Mary West of Rancho Santa Fe, worked four furlongs at Santa Anita on July 4 in 1:25.40.
Maximum Security crossed under the wire first in the 2019 Kentucky Derby but was controversially disqualified to 17th. Three subsequent stakes victories, two of them at the Grade I level, secured an Eclipse Award as the top 3-year-old of 2019.
Maximum Security was most recently seen in the $20 million Saudi Cup February 29, which he won. Racing officials in Riyadh later announced they were holding the purse in that race pending the results of their own investigation following the arrest of his previous trainer for possible doping.
CLOSERS – Selected workouts from 135 officially timed combined Tuesday and Wednesday: Tuesday – D K’s Crown (3f, :35.40), Secret Touch (3f, :36.20), Sharp Samurai (4f, :48.00), Epidemic (5f, 1:00.00); Wednesday – Fravel (3f, :36.40), Pretty Saylee (3f, :34.40), Big Runnuer (4f, :50.00), Extra Hope (4f, :47.80), As Time Goes By (5f, 1:00.00), Ax Man (5f, 1:01.20), Éclair (5f, 1:00.00), Mo Forza (5f, 1:01.40).