Del Mar: Irish Art gets green light to run in Thursday feature

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DEL MAR, Calif. – Del Mar's stewards on Wednesday made the unusual but not unprecedented decision to allow the transfer of Irish Art from trainer Carla Gaines to trainer Jerry Quinn, allowing Irish Art to run in Thursday's featured $85,000 seventh race.

The status of Irish Art for the race was in jeopardy because Gaines is set to begin a 30-day suspension on Thursday after being denied a temporary restraining order in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday. Quinn will be taking control of all her horses during her absence.

On Wednesday, Del Mar's stewards allowed Irish Art, who is owned by Warren Williamson, to be moved to Quinn's care. According to steward Scott Chaney, a racing board rule says stewards may deny such transfers, but in this case the transfer was granted.

One of the reasons often cited for denying transfers of horses after entry time is that the new trainer has not been helping to care for the animal. In this case, though, Chaney said one of the factors to allow the transfer is that Quinn has been working with Gaines.

"Under the circumstances, we didn't think it was fair to deny the transfer to the owner or the track itself," said Chaney, who said the decision was made by himself and fellow stewards Kim Sawyer and Tom Ward in consultation with the racing board.

Irish Art should be one of the main players in Thursday's feature, which drew nine runners. After a layoff of nine months, he came back earlier this year and made two starts, then went to the sidelines again for another five months. His most-recent problem, Gaines said earlier this week, was bleeding ulcers.

Irish Art has finished first and second in two starts on Del Mar’s turf course, and ran well off the layoff in January.

“He’s trained very well,” Gaines said. “He ran well in those two races earlier this year, but he wasn’t quite himself. We discovered he had bleeding ulcers, so we stopped training him for 30 days and sent him off the track to recover.”

Lucayan, who scratched from last week’s Wickerr, will be a serious player if he runs back to his second-place finish in the American Handicap in his United States debut on May 25. He subsequently was fifth and last in the Shoemaker Mile. Both those races were won by Obviously, the top turf miler on this circuit.

Old Time Hockey was third in a similar race, going 1 1/16 miles, at Betfair Hollywood Park last time out on July 5.
“I wish the race was a little farther. I think he might want to run a little farther,” said his trainer, Tom Proctor.

Camp Victory stretches out following a series of sprints, including a seventh-place finish in the Grade 1 Triple Bend Handicap on June 29. He is entered for a $100,000 claiming price, even though there is a clause in the race conditions – nonwinners of a race at a mile or longer since November 2012 – that would allow him to not be entered for a tag.