Del Mar opens as scrutiny of sport increases

SAN DIEGO – It is not a slogan that will be plastered on billboards around San Diego. No one is going to create jazzy theme music for it.

Yet the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club has an urgent message it wants to communicate to patrons:

“We are not Santa Anita.”

After 30 horse deaths occurred in the most recent meet at the historic track at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, focusing a white-hot national spotlight on the issue of thoroughbred horse treatment and safety, increased attention will be trained on Del Mar as its 80th summer meet commences on Wednesday.

“I know that the opening of Del Mar will not be about hat contests, pretty people and concerts; it’s going to be about dead horses,” Joe Harper, CEO of DMTC, said solemnly. “Hopefully, if what we’re doing will come to light, I think we will be impacted less than Santa Anita was.”

In the wake of a number of racing reforms introduced during the Santa Anita meet at the urging of state lawmakers and the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB), those inside and outside the industry say horse racing is under more scrutiny than at any time in its history. Owners and trainers say a significant number of deaths at any future meet could threaten the sport in California.

“This is a tipping point,” said Josh Rubenstein, Del Mar’s COO and president.

Those who want to see horse racing abolished in the U.S. say the recent reform efforts have not gone far enough.

“I look at these reforms as a massive ruse. I see the horse racing industry as depressed and scrambling because of Santa Anita,” said Patrick Battuello, founder of the organization Horseracing Wrongs, which has been tracking racing deaths on its website since 2013.

“They have to give the public something as a show of good faith, that they are taking this seriously.

“I do feel that we’ve turned the corner here with Santa Anita. The national press is finally engaged. They are seeing, in fact, that what happened at Santa Anita isn’t an anomaly. This wasn’t a ‘spike’ or ‘spate.’ This was business as usual.”

According to Jockey Club Equine Injury Database statistics, there have been 155 reported racing deaths (not including training) at Santa Anita in eight calendar years from 2011-18, an average of 19.3 per year. Del Mar has had 54 reported racing deaths (an average of 6.75) in that span in staging 39,821 fewer races.