Thursday's live racing card was cancelled after the fourth race due to weather conditions at Delaware Park in Wilmington, Del.
Races were initially taken off the turf to be contested over the muddy main track, but only four of eight carded races were able to be held before heavy rains forced the cancellation of the final four races.
Up to 1 inch of rain has fallen, and an additional inch or so is possible as the area is under a flood advisory until 5:45 p.m. local time, according to The Weather Channel.
Live racing is scheduled to resume on Friday, July 21.
But it's one horse winning one race that I can credit for giving me the opportunity to spend summers in Del Mar.
I'll be in the stands for Friday's opening of the 84th summer season at the track Bing Crosby made famous, all because of a gigantic upset in a major race more than 50 years ago – before I'd even heard of Del Mar. It's allowed me to witness history “Where the Turf Meets the Surf”: Dare and Go's upset of Cigar in the 1996 Pacific Classic; the first Del Mar Breeders' Cup in 2017; Flightline's unforgettable performance in the 2022 Pacific Classic, winning off by 19 ¼ lengths; and much more.
To get to Del Mar, as the track's signature song goes, I've taken a plane, taken a train, taken a car. (My first trip there was on a motorcycle, but there's probably too many syllables for Crosby and his songwriting partners to have gotten that into the lyrics).
In truth, though, I've been riding a horse here for most of the 45 years I've been attending Del Mar.
Let's go back to Feb. 13, 1971, when a Cal-bred 4-year-old named War Heim sprang a massive upset in the Charles H. Strub Stakes at Santa Anita. Named after the track's founder, the mile and a quarter Strub culminated a series of three races for 4-year-olds that began with the seven-furlong Malibu and continued with the 1 1/8-mile San Fernando. (The San Fernando and Strub are no longer run, and the Malibu was moved to December, where it's become the final Grade 1 race of the year for 3-year-olds.)
I was a senior in high school in northern Illinois in 1971 who hadn't discovered horse racing yet and probably spent that February weekend shoveling snow. But my future father-in-law, Bill Watts, was at Santa Anita with his wife, Helen, and he'd either gotten a tip or had a hunch about War Heim. He never would say how he ended up betting on the horse.
Trained by Dale Landers for Hazel Huffman, War Heim was a son of Slipped Disc who came into the Strub off a decent third at 37-1 odds in the San Fernando. He wasn't an unproven horse, having won a division of the Del Mar Derby the previous year, but that was on grass. The Strub was on the dirt.
With regular rider John Sellers in the saddle, War Heim maintained a good position in the early going of the Strub and entered contention going into the far turn, then swept wide around the turn to engage the front-running Hanalei Bay for the final quarter mile, getting his nose in front of that foe just at the wire.
War Heim paid an even $100 to win, $29.60 to place, and $11.20 to show as the second longest price in a field of 10 led by the previous year's Travers Stakes winner, Loud.
To this day, I don't know how much Bill put on War Heim in the Strub, but there was no exacta, trifecta, superfecta, pick 3, etc., so it had to be a significant bet on the nose to win. And that's exactly what he got.
Two days later, while the country was celebrating the Presidents Day holiday on Feb. 15 (then it was just called Washington's Birthday), Bill took Helen and daughter Carol down the coast to Del Mar in hopes of finding a house to rent for the summer racing season. They'd been renting up the road in Oceanside previous years and wanted to get a little closer to the track.
Realtor Chiquita Abbott disappointed them at first, saying she wasn't aware of any rental properties at that time. Abbott, who recently authored a book, “To Del Mar With Love, Chiquita,” added that she did have a little “plain Jane” bungalow in the beach colony for sale that was steps from the beach and a short walk to the racetrack.
The “plain Jane” Del Mar bungalow as it looked in 1971
Bill won enough on War Heim to make a down payment on the house, which was priced at about what you can buy a modest new car for today.
Whenever he would later see John Sellers at the races, Bill would always say, “There's the guy who bought our house.”
For years, Bill and Helen rented out the house to faculty from nearby UCSD, then occupied it for the summer months. They did some renovations and eventually moved to Del Mar full time from the Los Angeles area when Bill retired from his career with Merrill Lynch.
They didn't miss a day of racing in Del Mar until age finally caught up with them. Both are gone now, and I can say I've never met two people who had more of a passion for racing than Bill and Helen.
The house that War Heim and John Sellers bought would eventually be passed down to Carol, who I'd met in 1980 while we both worked at Daily Racing Form in Los Angeles. We were married in 1983, and after moving to Kentucky in 1988, Del Mar became the summer vacation destination for us and our kids each year. Now it's our second home.
Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Friday's Observations features Tattersalls Craven Breeze up co-topper Vandeek (Havana Grey).
14:15 Nottingham, Mdn, £6,850, 2yo, 6f 18yT VANDEEK (GB) (Havana Grey {GB}) emerges a touch later than would have been expected from a colt who at 625,000gns was the joint sale topper at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up. Simon and Ed Crisford introduce KHK Racing Ltd's grey from the family of the sires Anabaa and Key Of Luck against last month's Newmarket runner-up Never So Brave (Ire)(No Nay Never), a Saeed Suhail-Sir Michael Stoute project who was close enough to TDN Rising Star Ancient Wisdom (Fr) (Dubawi {Ire}) to suggest he has ability.
14.25 Newbury, Novice, £12,000, 2yo, 7fT TRAFALGAR SQUARE (IRE) (Too Darn Hot {GB}), a 600,000gns Book 1 graduate, is introduced by Andrew Balding for Qatar Racing in the maiden the stable won 12 months ago with Chaldean (GB) (Frankel {GB}) and which saw Bayside Boy (Ire) (New Bay {GB}) prevail the year previously. A son of the G2 May Hill S. scorer and G1 Prix Marcel Boussac runner-up Turret Rocks (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) and half-brother to last month's G3 Jersey S. winner Age Of Kings (Ire) (Kingman {GB}), he has it to do to match up to the Westerberg colour-bearer Maximum Dividend (Ire) (American Pharoah), a Richard Hannon-trained son of the G3 Give Thanks S. winner Sizzling (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) who was such a promising nose second to Juddmonte's Starlore (GB) (Kingman {GB}) at Sandown a fortnight ago.
HOW THEY FARED 18.20 Leopardstown, Mdn, €16,000, 2yo, f, 8fT Andromeda (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), the full-sister to the G1 Irish 1000 Guineas heroine Peaceful (Ire), put up a debut full of promise in second.
Most of the architects of the popular “Ship & Win” program at Del Mar refuse to take credit for saving horse racing in Southern California. Admittedly, the term “saving” may be a bit of an overstatement but there's no denying that the successful program has breathed new life into the region.
“Ship & Win” enters its 13th season at Del Mar in 2023. The program provides incentives for out-of-town trainers and owners to bring their horses to the seaside oval. If a horse has made their last start outside of the state, they get a bonus just for running, $5,000 for dirt runners, $4,000 for turf. Then on top of the bonus they get a purse supplement, 50 percent for dirt, 40 percent for turf.
Last year, over 200 horses qualified for the “Ship & Win” bonus and made over 300 starts at Del Mar. This year racing secretary David Jerkens believes the numbers will be similar.
“'Ship & Win' was up 20-percent last year,” Jerkens says. “It was a big component of our success last summer. I don't know if we'll be at the level of last year but I think we'll be in the ballpark.
“When you attract out-of-state barns that bring 20 head,” Jerkens says, “like last year we had Diodoro and Sisterson, that inflates the numbers. Typically most of the starts are from local trainers. 60-to-70 percent are local. Then you throw in out-of-state barns that are not just sending a stakes horse and you get that eight-horse field that might have been a six or that 10-horse field that might have been an eight. You just look at the card and you see how many extra horses are from the 'Ship & Win' program.”
Overall, an estimated 2,400 horses have participated in the “Ship & Win” program since it began in 2011. This has led to increased field sizes, not only at Del Mar but at other racetracks around the state.
“We opened it up for Santa Anita,” Jerkens says, “where an eligible horse can make two starts at Santa Anita in May and June and still be eligible for purse bonuses at Del Mar. And at the Santa Anita autumn meet, horses remain eligible as long as they've made one start at Del Mar.”
The ripple effect of these horses shipping in to Del Mar is that many are staying and racing in Southern California.
“We've kept track of the horses,” Jerkens says, “and we've seen evidence that a majority of them remain on the circuit. Typically they'll stay in the state and make another start of two.”
In addition to “Ship & Win” there's the Maiden Incentive Program, a 25 percent purse supplement for owners and trainers who run their horses in Maiden Special Weight dirt races, MSW Cal-bred dirt races, and maiden claiming dirt races of $62,000 and above. That translates into big bucks for an owner who brings their horse from out-of-state and wins one of the qualifying maiden races.
