There’s no use fighting it. Not even the traditional calendar has a chance. The 2017 Thoroughbred racing season, as far as championships go, lasted 10 months and a few days, effectively ending the moment Win the Space trundled home last in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar on Nov. 4.
That’s the way John Gaines wanted it when he invented the Breeders’ Cup, and that’s the way it’s been these last 34 years, with only a handful of exceptions to prove that rules are hard to rattle.
A few lingering Breeders’ Cup thoughts:
** Allow me to echo the widespread praise for the job Del Mar did hosting the Breeders’ Cup. Logistically, everything came off without an obvious hitch. Moreover, the setting is simply gorgeous, so much so that I can’t imagine any racing person who was there on that sun-splashed Breeders’ Cup Saturday wanting to be anywhere else in the world.
Steve Asmussen sat splayed across most of a bench outside the Del Mar receiving barn, where Gun Runner, Arrogate, and their nine rivals circled in anticipation of the final call for the 34th running of the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Asmussen’s tan suit, properly relaxed from a long day of wear, was complemented by a blue shirt the color of the coastal sky still clinging to another hour of daylight. His hair, as usual, had gone rogue, but he seemed otherwise serene in the face of the challenge ahead.
I saw Angel kissing Gun Runner.
Okay, as a title for a traditional Christmas song it leaves a lot to be desired. But as a casual glimpse at the bond between man and horse, which happens a lot around the racetrack, it told me all I needed to know about the favorite for the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday afternoon at Del Mar.
Bill Mott was asked to recall the last time he was at Del Mar.
“Well, I’ve sent a number of horses here,” he said, standing near his Breeders’ Cup contingent on the Del Mar backstretch. “Somebody told me we had something like nine wins from 19 runners in the last 20 years.”
Swell. Happy for you, Bill, but you didn’t answer the question. When was the last time William I. Mott, of Mobridge, S.D., was at Del Mar racetrack in Del Mar, Calif.?
Mott unleashed the grin that’s probably helped him get away with a lot more than he should have through the years.
Joe Harper had no chance. On his mother’s side, he was awash with the cinematic pomp and circumstance of his grandfather, Cecil B. DeMille. On his father’s side, there lurked the legacy of Harper’s great-grandfather John Chamberlain, a 19th century gambler and tireless promoter who was in business with heavyweights like Boss Tweed and John Morrissey.
Del Mar has never had what you’d call an inferiority complex. One glowing sunset over the cliffs of Solana Beach is enough to cure any feelings that karma has given the seaside track short shrift.
It is a fact, however, that in its 80 years of operation, Del Mar has risen to the upper reaches of the national sports consciousness only four times – and now five counting the Breeders’ Cup to be run next weekend.
Beverly and Bob Lewis met when he was a cheerleader at the University of Oregon and she was interviewing for a spot on the squad.
“She didn’t make the squad,” Bob loved to recall. “But I did get her phone number.”
“And I got the yell leader,” Beverly would reply.
There was sentiment afoot last summer that Del Mar management should open its training facilities as soon as possible once the leaves began to turn, in an effort to give stables the option of early training over the Breeders’ Cup landscape.
So they did. The track opened Monday, fully staffed with outriders, clockers, and emergency vehicles. The maintenance crew had the main course groomed like a Westminster poodle, while the quarantine barns were done up for the Europeans like a spread in Better Homes & Gardens.
