Del Mar: Pure Tactics euthanized

DEL MAR, Calif. – It’s been a tough couple of days at the office for the personnel at trainer Doug O’Neill’s barn following the death on Sunday at Del Mar of the popular Pure Tactics, who suffered catastrophic injuries to the sesamoids in his left hind leg during the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile on turf and had to be euthanized.

Pure Tactics, 6, was a multiple stakes winner who had captured the Wickerr Stakes here earlier in the meet. He went into the Del Mar Mile having won 10 times in 25 starts. But as much as his admirable record and powerful physique made him popular, so did his personality. He had a fondness for sweet potatoes, and thus was nicknamed “Tater” around the barn.

“He was as sweet as could be,” said a shaken Steve Rothblum, a former trainer who assists O’Neill. “He loved his sweet potatoes. When we first got him from Morris Nicks, he said if you give him his sweet potatoes he’ll be fine.

“I hadn’t shed a tear in a long time but I had good cry over him. It only gets harder. It doesn’t get easier.”

After beginning his career in the Midwest, Pure Tactics spent the last half of his career in California, where he won the Lure Stakes and Clocker’s Corner Stakes at Santa Anita in addition to the Wickerr.