The annual summer meeting at Del Mar is a showcase event.
The crowds are large and almost 2,000 horses are on the grounds for a meeting that draws national attention.
The fall meeting underway now is different. Much different.
There are fewer horses as well as people. The 13-day meeting opens out of the spotlight, although the action picks up during the final two weeks when top contenders fly in from the east for the Del Mar Turf Festival.
But there is much to like about the fall meeting. Just ask Phil D’Amato, who has been atop the trainer standings at Del Mar’s past two summer meetings as well as the past two fall meetings.
“I don’t think there is another meeting quite like Del Mar’s fall meeting,” D’Amato said Sunday before scoring two wins, although his entries in the featured $100,000 Betty Grable Stakes ran second (Rose Dawson) and third (Carmen Miranda) behind winning Chancery Way.
“Del Mar, the city, is quieter this time of the year,” continued D’Amato. “There’s not as much beach traffic. Del Mar is getting ready for the holidays. And the weather is cooler.
“The track is quieter … tranquil. There are fewer horses at the track. It’s less crowded during workouts. The horses seem to sense that. It’s like a working vacation for them. What’s not to like. It’s a quasi-working vacation for horses and trainers alike.
“The track is fresh in addition to having less traffic. The horses seem to get over it better. And you can train horses on the grass as well. It suits my barn very well.”
D’Amato and jockey Flavien Prat won the bookends to the feature with American Hope ($5.40) in the seventh and Cali Bay ($4.20) in the ninth.
But Antonio Fresu almost went wire-to-wire on Chancery Bay ($7.80) to win the seven-furlong feature for older Cal-bred fillies and mares by 3 ¾ lengths over favorite Rose Dawson (Juan Hernandez), who finished a neck ahead of Carmen Miranda (Ramon Vazquez).
“She broke sharp and Antonio put her on the lead like we thought we’d be,” said Chancery Way trainer Jamey Thomas. “It worked out perfect for us. She’s been training really good, so we thought she was ready to roll. We thought ‘let’s find her a race’ and this happened to be the one.”
“I didn’t know anything about this filly before I rode her today,” said Fresu. “I looked at film of her races and could see she had speed. And it looked like she could finish well.When we turned for home, she really went.”
D’Amato is not alone in his favorable assessment of Del Mar’s fall meeting.
“November at Del Mar is probably the best track we have because there are so few horses,” said Peter Miller, who has won four fall training titles at Del Mar. “The surface is great and the weather is cool. In my opinion, it’s the best track we have all year on this circuit.”
Prat, Fresu and Hernandez all picked up two wins Sunday. Prat had six winners on the opening weekend to four for Umberto Rispoli and three for Hernandez. Trainers D’Amato and Bob Baffert each had three wins.
For the third straight day, Baffert ran a high-priced purchase in a maiden special race. But Nafisa (a $1.8 million purchase last August by Zedan Racing Stables) didn’t’ follow in the winning footsteps of Coach Prime (Friday) and Pilot Commander. Nafisa ran second to the Tim Yakteen-trained Great Forty Eight (J.G. Torrealba).
Sunday’s other race winners — First race: Grazia (Hernandez, $2.80); Second race: Table For Ten (Fresu, $5.40); Race four: Rugelach (Hernandez, $4.20); Race five: Always Smiling (Kyle Frey, $14.00); Race six: Book Smart (Giovani Franco, $5.00).
Notable
• Mr. Leasure bolted before the start of Sunday’s one-mile seventh race on the turf and ran the opposite way around the track before running up the chute and into the infield, covering almost two miles before being brought under control. Mr. Leasure’s run created a 10-minute delay.
• The turf course opened for training Sunday, marking the first turf training in Southern California in the two months since Del Mar’s summer meeting ended in September.
• Del Mar has continued the program it started last summer of providing meals for backside workers on race days.
• Racing will continue Friday.
