GOLDEN GLIMPSES #127

August 11, 1998

By ED GOLDEN

Del Mar, where the course beats the horse.

One of the busiest people at the seaside track this summer has been the driver of the horse van during the races. Seems every day a horse is eased in a race and subsequently "vanned off" the track, unable to make it on its own.

According to the Daily Racing Form, seven horses died due to injuries suffered during a race in the first nine days of the meet, an alarming and distressing fact.

Opinions vary as to the reason.

"It is a strange race track," said trainer Randy Bradshaw, one of the game’s nicest guys and not considered a malcontent by any stretch of the imagination. "The horses I’ve run, and I’ve run some fast horses, believe me, just look like they’re in quicksand for a while. I ran a horse named Esteem (on Aug. 2; he finished fourth, beaten two lengths) and back east, he was never more than two or three lengths off the pace at Churchill Downs, and hell, he was eight or nine lengths behind down the backside.

"Same with my 2-year-old filly who ran second (Cacophony). She’s got a lot of gas and it was the same with her. She got off so bad I thought she was just going to get beat, not gonna go anywhere. And then finally she started picking it up.

"It’s probably a lot different for horses shipping here from Santa Anita because it’s such a different race track for them. Del Mar is definitely different this year from last. They added a lot more sand and maybe that’s why. Del Mar is a different surface from Hollywood, as well. You come here and work your horses hard or race them and it’s totally different for them. Whether that has a lot to do with it, I don’t know.

"I ran a colt for Golden Eagle (Farm) called Economic Trend, and I thought he’d be tough to beat. But the second jump out of the gate, he fell right on his head. I don’t know how Rene (Douglas) stayed on him. He went down and grabbed a quarter real bad. He’s a nice colt, but it just looked like he was shot when he dropped. I thought Rene had to fall off, then all of a sudden the horse came back up and Rene was still on him.

"The jocks tell me the dirt is real loose leaving the gate. If a horse breaks real hard, it really breaks out from under him. Trainers are concerned because there have been a lot of breakdowns. But when you walk across the track, it feels OK, a little deeper and heavier maybe, but it feels soft. You can’t hear horses really gallop, like (when) it’s hard. But the track is a little bit different."

Vladimir Cerin, who sent out Magnificent Marks to a $56.20 upset on Aug. 2, begs to differ.

"This is the best surface at Del Mar in the last five years," said Cerin, a 44-year-old trainer with a graduate degree from UCLA in kinesiology, the study of movement (some of his patients have been tennis star Tracy Austin and basketball greats Jamaal Wilkes, Bill Walton and Kiki Vandeweghe).

"You have 3,000 horses here who have come from all kinds of places," he went on, explaining his theory on why horses are being eased and/or breaking down. "Some of them came here with inherited problems. Sometimes freak accidents will cause horses to break down, but sometimes horses arrive with problems. Some of these horses, I don’t want to say which ones, were ready to go for a while. They haven’t been the soundest of horses. It just happened that they all broke down at the same time.

"I had one horse (We Be Cuzzins) who was eased, but the vets said he jogged off fine and they didn’t see anything wrong with him. My horses who have trained well have run well. Obviously, every trainer wants to win every time out, but we only get our turn once in a while, if we’re lucky. The track is good. Most horses can handle it. I haven’t had a single horse get hurt here in the mornings. I haven’t had any problems with tendons, suspensories, knees, ankles; the track’s in real good shape. I think it’s much better than it’s been in the past.

"Everybody has an opinion on how to manage a track. That job belongs to the trackman, because if you talk with 20 different trainers, you will have 20 different opinions on how to manage the race track. Steve Wood (track foreman) does the job and he does it well. I’d leave it at that."

But professional clocker Gary Young had the most logical and direct explanation. "I think it’s the same old problem," Young said. "Too much racing. We just don’t need racing six days a week, neither the horses nor the bettors. Once racing cleans up its two biggest problems, too much racing and the medication mess, it will be better off."

THE HOMESTRETCH: The recent shakeup of Santa Anita’s corporate holder, Meditrust, will have no immediate effect on the future of racing at the Arcadia track, but if there is a sale down the road, bet on Churchill Downs as the leading buying candidate . . . Now that Steve Crist and his merry men have bought the Daily Racing Form, expect a wholesale personnel purge . . . Bob Baffert made his acting debut on HBO’s Aug. 3 "Arliss." The Sunday night show stars Robert Wohl as a won’t-take-no-for-an-answer sports agent. "I got the gig through (ABC-TV’s) Al Michaels," said Baffert. "He told me I’d have fun and to do it. I didn’t really know what the show was about but it was hysterical. I was in a hurry when I did it because it was after the Preakness and I had to get to New York for the Belmont. I’d never seen the show before. I felt so awkward watching myself, but they said they would make me look good, and they did. Now I have to order HBO." . . . Agent Bob Meldahl says Laffit Pincay Jr. is recovering rapidly from a broken left collarbone and several cracked ribs suffered when his mount fell in a race on July 25. "Laffit tells me his recuperation is coming right along," Meldahl said. "He’s hitting the Stair Master hard and staying in shape. They don’t come any better than Laffit when it comes to disciplining yourself." Pincay, who needs 202 wins to tie Bill Shoemaker’s career record of 8,833, believes he can resume riding before Del Mar ends on Sept. 9 . . . Bruce Headley, leading Del Mar trainer with eight wins from 14 starters, vows he has "a lot more bullets to fire." . . . Baffert worked Silver Charm five furlongs in :59 1/5 on Saturday. "I’m slowly getting him cranked up again, with no race in mind," said Baffert. "I’m just trying to get him back to where he was. He’s a long way from retiring." Not so for Santa Anita Derby winner Indian Charlie, who has been retired after pulling a suspensory during a recent workout. He won four of five starts, his only loss a third in the Kentucky Derby . . . Jane Goldstein, a dedicated Santa Anita executive since arriving from Monmouth Park in 1975, will take an early retirement on Oct. 15. "My responsibilities have changed the last few seasons," said Goldstein, who began her career in 1961 at the New Orleans Fair Grounds. "As a result, I find myself less interested than I once was, so it seemed like the appropriate time to make a change." . . . On Saturday, Pacific Classic day, Del Mar’s post time will move from 2 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. The Classic will go as race seven and will be part of the track’s guaranteed $2 million Pick Six pool.

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