Rare Rain and Royalty at Del Mar

Racing delayed after Triple Crown winner works out on track

Since weather affects just about any outdoor sporting event, and the rain is certainly the story of the day in San Diego, NBC7.com’s team coverage of the rain continues with a SportsWrap take on it.

Here's an indication of just how rare the weather on Saturday was in our town. It was pouring on the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. In fact, stewards sent the horses back to the stables for a bit, delaying the first race of the day. Rainy days simply do not happen very often.

“They are extraordinarily unusual here,” said Mac McBride, the Director of Media for the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. But just how unusual, you ask?

Consider this: race tracks are listed with four different conditions: Fast, Good, Muddy and Slow. Fast is, of course, optimal for racing, and is the default setting for Del Mar. On Saturday Del Mar was listed as Good, breaking an awfully long streak of near-perfect weather.

“The last time our track was anything but fast was September 6th, 1991,” says McBride, “and our track that day was listed as good. (It was) the last time we had anything other than a Fast track.”

This was just the third time racing was held on the newly installed track at the Thoroughbred Club. Despite the deluge and delay, no problems were reported.

“So far the track has held up wonderfully well,” says McBride. “We knew it would eventually be tested. We just thought it would be in September.”

Even though the club has been blessed with pristine conditions for decades, when the new track was installed it was done with days like this in mind.

“You have to take it in to consideration, you absolutely do,” says McBride. “It’s an outdoor track, it’s open and exposed to the elements. You have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”

There has been racing at Del Mar for 76 seasons and not once, ever, has a day been canceled due to bad weather. Plus, if the conditions are good enough for a Triple Crown winner, you have to figure everything is going to be OK.

American Pharoah got in a morning workout, the first time he’s been on the dirt at Del Mar since winning a race here last year. Trainer Bob Baffert was on hand to watch his prize run the fastest time of all the horses working out on Saturday.

In an interview with www.bloodhorse.com Baffert said he had no problem putting the multi-million dollar mount out in the rainy conditions.

“I think the bit of rain we got this morning might have been good for the track,” said Baffert. “Tightened it up a bit.”

American Pharoah is training to run in the $1 million Haskell Invitational in New Jersey on August 2. Baffert did not elaborate on the horse’s schedule but also did not rule out running him in the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar on August 22.

As for Saturday’s racing, the main event was the $400,000 Eddie Read Stakes. Gabriel Charles, ridden by Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith, won by nearly four lengths. He was followed by Twentytwentyvision and Finnegans Wake.

A lot of gamblers will tell you to bet the jockeys instead of the horses. So far Smith is having a nice season in San Diego. He also won the $100,000 Oceanside Stakes on opening day Thursday.

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