Omaha Beach nearing first workout

DEL MAR, Calif. – It has taken longer than first expected for Omaha Beach to get back into serious training, but his first work since being scratched days before the Kentucky Derby is expected in about a week, trainer Richard Mandella said.

“I’d have liked to be about a month ahead, but he’s coming good,” Mandella said as Omaha Beach galloped here at Del Mar earlier this week.

Omaha Beach, winner of the Arkansas Derby and a division of the Rebel Stakes, was the morning-line favorite for the Derby but was withdrawn owing to an entrapped epiglottis, which was surgically corrected in Kentucky. The initial rehab took longer than first thought, but Mandella has taken his time, not wanting to get in a hurry and compromise the colt’s comeback.

McAnally’s 70th season

Ron McAnally, the Hall of Fame trainer, first visited Del Mar as a teenager in 1948 while working for his uncle Reggie Cornell. With the exception of two years serving in the Air Force during the Korean War, he has been at Del Mar every summer since then.

“I was making $30 a week, sleeping in a stall,” McAnally said. “I missed two years when I went into the service. I was stationed in Alaska, refueling big jets.”

McAnally, who turned 87 last week, trains a small barn these days but is one of the all-time leaders at Del Mar, fourth in victories with 445 and second in stakes wins with 77.