On Wednesday, when Del Mar Thoroughbred Club (DMTC) announced the cancellation of this weekend’s three days of racing in the aftermath of 15 asymptomatic jockeys there testing positive for COVID-19, the chief reason listed in the track’s press release was “to help ensure the safety of all workers at Del Mar and our surrounding community.”
But in a Thursday teleconference organized by the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC) that featured Del Mar executives explaining their decision not to race, the focal point centered not so much on preventing the spread of the disease, but on whether or not there would have been enough qualified replacements to take the mounts vacated by the quarantined jockeys.
“We felt it was the prudent thing to do,” said Josh Rubinstein, the president of Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, at the outset of the call. “We just wouldn’t have enough riders to put on a quality racing product that you as owners are used to in California and that our customers are used to wagering on.”
A few minutes later, when the teleconference was opened up to questions from the 141 participants listening in, the very first query was from owner Billy Koch, who asked Rubinstein to clarify whether the primary reason for the cancellation “wasn’t that we couldn’t find other jockeys, it was that we were more concerned with how it would actually look.”
Rubinstein’s reply was “That’s partially accurate. We debated several scenarios [like] bringing in northern California riders. That was challenging, as they had been named on horses up north.”
Rubinstein also explained that after the 15 positive tests, the Del Mar pool of regular riders was down to about 12. And when track management announced on July 15 that a new health protocol will prohibit jockeys from entering the backstretch to exercise horses, three of those “not big-name riders” opted to keep working as per-diem exercise riders in the mornings rather than accept mounts as in the afternoons.
“So that took the number down from 12 to about nine, so it would have been very challenging to try to put together a card with jockeys of the quality that you owners need and what our players need to wager on.”
Several subsequent teleconference participants wanted to know why other racing jurisdictions haven’t had jockeys testing positive en masse for the coronavirus and why Del Mar only began testing riders after the outbreak was detected.
“We’re very confident of the protocols that we have in place,” Rubinstein said, alluding to “some challenges” that occurred before riders got to Del Mar.
Greg Avioli, the president and chief executive officer the Thoroughbred Owners of California, interjected with a more pointed response.
“Let me be more direct,” Avioli said. “What Josh is not saying is a number of these jockeys showed up at Del Mar having almost certainly picked up this virus when they were at Los Alamitos. So it didn’t really matter what the Del Mar protocols were at that point [because] asymptomatic jockeys showed up with the virus. I think this should be a one-time issue.”
Avioli was referencing a cluster of five jockeys who all rode at Los Alamitos Race Course on July 4 then subsequently tested positive for the virus. Those riders have been publicly acknowledged as Luis Saez, Martin Garcia, Victor Espinoza, Flavien Prat and Eduard Rojas Fernandez. Of the 15 jockey positives from the July 14 testing at Del Mar, 14 of them have been contact-traced to Los Alamitos.
“The good news is they are all currently asymptomatic,” Rubinstein said of the 15 positive-test jockeys, whom Del Mar is not naming out of respect to privacy rights.
“And based on our conversations with the county and with [the San Diego health care provider] Scripps Health, as long as they remain asymptomatic, and we’ve had contact with all 14 of the [Los Al] jockeys, they will be able to quarantine for 10 days and they will be able to ride when we resume racing next Friday, July 24.”
The starting gate crew and pony riders who accompany Thoroughbreds to the gate are scheduled to undergo COVID-19 testing on Friday, Rubinstein added. Exercise riders are not currently scheduled for testing.
When pressed by another call participant about why Del Mar did not plan for testing jockeys prior to the meet, Rubinstein explained it this way:
“We received guidance from both the county and Scripps Health. And their guidance to us [was] that there are challenges with asymptomatic testing. And their recommendation to us was to allocate resources to other things we’re doing with facial coverings, sanitizing, reconfiguring the jockeys’ room. But obviously, if somebody [shows] symptoms, you get them tested right away. That thinking changed [when] five jockeys tested positive from Los Alamitos. Then we immediately tested the riders on Tuesday.”
When a member of the media inquired as to whether the valets, who work in close quarters with the jockeys, were also tested and if any of those results came back positive, Avioli, who was moderating the teleconference, was quick to say that “this isn’t really a media call.” But he said he would “make an exception” if the DMTC executives wanted to answer the question.
A woman who did not identify herself prior to speaking then answered that all of jockeys’ room personnel were tested on Tuesday along with the riders. But she did not answer the part of the query that dealt with the results of those tests, and Avioli quickly called for the next question.
In addition to the list of new health protocols Del Mar announced on July 15 (read them here), Rubinstein said that out-of-state jockeys will not be allowed to enter the Del Mar riding colony this meet. And if they leave Del Mar to ride elsewhere, they won’t be allowed back.
With one notable exception.
“It starts when the colony is back together next week,” Rubinstein said. “So the question that you may be asking is ‘[What about] Mike Smith?'”
Smith, the in-demand Hall-of-Fame jockey, is booked to ride five graded stakes mounts Saturday at Monmouth Park, including heavily favored Authentic (Into Mischief) in the GI Haskell S. for trainer Bob Baffert.
“We had actually had conversations with Mike,” Rubinstein explained. “Mike is riding Saturday in New Jersey. If we were to [have had races] this weekend, we had Mike scheduled for a quick test at Scripps on Sunday. He would be isolated until we got the results of that test. If it was clean, then he [would have been] able to ride on Sunday. So we’re doing the same thing with Mike [but] we’re just moving it a week forward. So when Mike gets back from New Jersey we will set up a test for him at Scripps. Hopefully, it’s negative, and he will be a part of the colony.”
Other jockeys won’t have that privilege.
“They can leave, they just can’t come back–[like in the song by the Eagles] Hotel California,” Rubinstein said.
“In reverse,” quipped someone on the call more familiar with the haunting lyrics that warn, “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”
Because of the July 17-19 cancellations, Rubinstein said Del Mar has a request pending with the California Horse Racing Board to allow the track to add a race date on Monday, July 27. In addition, Del Mar will seek to card additional races on some Fridays and Sundays.
“We don’t think it will be an issue to get approval, but we want to let folks know…that we intend to do our best to make up for the races that were lost from this weekend,” Rubinstein said.
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