Del Mar's opening day was delayed when 15 asymptomatic jockeys tested positive for COVID-19 on July 14, but the track expects to resume racing operations this Friday. According to the Daily Racing Form, none of those jockeys will be required to present a new, negative COVID-19 test before returning to Del Mar to ride.
“The guidance from the county is you can return to work in 10 days,” track president Josh Rubinstein told the Daily Racing Form, adding that Del Mar is also following the advice of executives with medical advisers Scripps Health and the CDC.
The positive jockeys were instructed to quarantine, and they will undergo individual evaluations by a track physician, Rubinstein said. Jockeys will now be housed in 10-foot by 10-foot portions of the lower level of the grandstand, to allow for adequate social distancing, and current protocols do not allow for jockeys to work horses in the mornings.
One of the jockeys named to ride at Del Mar will be Hall of Famer Mike Smith, who told the Daily Racing Form that he has tested negative for COVID-19 on 11 different occasions. Smith rode last Saturday at Monmouth Park in New Jersey, winning the G1 Haskell Stakes aboard the Bob Baffert-trained Authentic.
“I was tested in Jersey on Saturday and when I came back here on Sunday,” Smith told drf.com. “I've been blessed to stay healthy so I could keep going. I'm trying to stay extra fit and make fitness a way of life. It's really paid off.”
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