Horsemen stepped up to save horses during fire emergency
When the last van from San Luis Rey Downs arrived Thursday night at Del Mar, the horse Dream Police stepped off, the last of three runners whom owner Jeff Bloom had at San Luis Rey Downs, which was hit by a devastating fire Thursday. One by one they had trickled in – first A Red Tie Day, then Sassy Ashley, and finally Dream Police – and now all were safely relocated.
“When he got here,” Bloom said Friday, “the whole place erupted.”
There was cause for both joy and tears in the aftermath of the fire, which left this racing community shell-shocked but also brought out the very best. Bloom was one of scores of people at Del Mar on Friday morning helping to care for the horses, some of whom had burn marks, could not be immediately identified, or both.
“It’s like puzzle pieces,” said Bloom, who lives in nearby Oceanside and runs the Bloom Racing partnership. “There were so many incredible people who helped. People with mom-and-pop vans, vans you wouldn’t normally put a horse in, but who cares? You just wanted to get them out of there and down here. The horses would get off the trailers, and some would have no halters, no tags, some don’t have tattoos yet.”
He said many of the arriving horses had burn marks and were obviously suffering from thirst.
“It’s gut-wrenching,” he said. “There was one horse who I’ve never seen drink so much water. He drank three buckets of water so fast.”
Bloom said the atmosphere at Del Mar was one of everyone pulling together for the sake of the horses.
“It’s incredible how quickly the horse community responded,” he said.
One of those who helped with the evacuation was Ruben Loza, the San Luis Rey Downs-based assistant to trainer Richard Baltas, who has all three Bloom horses.
Baltas on Friday praised the work of Loza in helping get the horses to safety at Del Mar and local farms. Baltas said all but one of his 34-horse stable was accounted for Friday morning.
“Ruben Loza got them all on vans,” Baltas said. “Some vans went to other places.
“We’re at Del Mar now. They all got out safe. A couple got loose, but we got them. None of my horses got burned, and none died. We’re missing one that might be at a farm.”
Baltas said Loza “stayed at the barn and did a heroic job of watering down the barn.”
Bloom said when Loza saw Dream Police on Friday, “there was a tear in his eye.”
But both Bloom and Baltas realized they were among the fortunate in this tragedy.
“I feel horrible for what happened to everybody,” Baltas said.
– additional reporting by Steve Andersen