Eddie Delahoussaye turned 70 on Sept. 21.
Time flies.
Seems like yesterday the Hall of Fame member and Louisiana native was roaring down the stretch at Santa Anita to capture another thrilling victory in a photo finish, or winning the Kentucky Derby back-to-back, on Gato Del Sol in 1982 and Sunny's Halo in 1983.
Delahoussaye is one of only seven jockeys to register consecutive triumphs in 147 editions of the Run for the Roses, the others being Isaac Murphy, Jimmy Winkfield, Ron Turcotte, Calvin Borel, Victor Espinoza and John Velazquez.
Arguably one of the most popular jockeys ever to ride at Santa Anita, Eddie D as he is known among racing aficionados, has been honored at The Great Place by having one of Friday's stakes races named for him.
The $200,000 Eddie D Stakes, for three-year-olds and up, marks a return to Santa Anita's unique hillside turf course at about 6 ½ furlongs, that venue having not been used since March 2019.
The Eddie D is one of four opening day stakes, three of them graded, including the Grade 1 American Pharoah for 2-year-olds at a mile and 1 1/16 miles and the Grade 2 Chandelier Stakes for two-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles. Although not graded, for good measure there's the $100,000 Speakeasy Stakes for two-year-olds at five furlongs on turf.
The latter three are Breeders' Cup “Win and You're In” Challenge events giving the winner a fees-paid berth in their respective Breeders' Cup races Nov. 5 and 6 at Del Mar.
Due to Covid 19 both last year and this, and Hurricane Ida, a deadly and destructive Category 4 hurricane that ravaged Louisiana a month ago, Delahoussaye will miss being on hand to present a trophy to the winning connections of the Eddie D for the second year in a row.
But he and his family, wife Juanita, sister Rose Anne and daughter Mandy, who has special needs, escaped serious harm from the second-most damaging and intense hurricane ever to strike Louisiana.
“We got lucky,” Delahoussaye said by phone from his home in Lafayette. “People on both sides of us got hit the worst. We were right in the middle and had winds and rain, but nothing serious. Baton Rouge and most of the coast lines really got blasted.”
Meanwhile, Juanita and Mandy, now 46, are recovering from ailments unrelated to Ida, but otherwise, “Everything's OK. We're just getting older.
“I'm doing all right but Mandy's been sick for over a year,” said Delahoussaye, a Hall of Fame member since 1993 who retired early in 2003 with 6,384 victories after suffering head and neck injuries in a spill at Del Mar on Aug. 30, 2002. “She's still not 100 percent so we've been going through a lot with her, and Juanita had a rotator cuff operation six weeks ago, but she's getting better. I'm lucky my sister and I are healthy to help out.”
Eddie is still “fiddling around” with more than a visceral involvement in the bloodstock business and is a relatively new member of the Louisiana Racing Commission.
“A partner and I have a mare and Juanita and I have another mare, with some babies coming in,” Delahoussaye said. “One's in training right now and another we're putting in a two-year-old in training sale. I've been on the racing commission for about a year, so it all keeps me busy.”
Eddie still maintains contact with his Hall of Fame peers periodically as well.
“I talk with Chris (McCarron) once in a while, and I spoke with Alex (Solis) a couple months ago,” Eddie said. “He was in Florida with Jose Velez, so we got to chattin'.
“I talk to Pat Day once in a while but I haven't talked with Laffit (Pincay Jr.) lately. Usually, I do that once a year, but since the pandemic, I haven't talked to him at all the last two years.”
As to racing's future, what with members of the medical field, politicians and lawyers seemingly in the news as much if not more than the horses, Delahoussaye maintains a wait-and-see attitude.
“The way things are right now, with bad tests and so forth, that needs to be cleaned up,” he said with a hint of acuity. “They should reconsider the use of therapeutic medication being measured in picograms and nanograms which are so small it's almost out of a horse's system. Either we do with it or we do without it.
“If you do without it completely, we won't have racing, because let's face it: football players, baseball players, they all use therapeutic medicine. As long as it's not a stimulant to enhance performance and it's just to help them do what comes naturally, it should be used.
“Get rid of the clenbuterol that enhances their performance. Lasix is a diuretic and is not an enhancer, yet they want to do away with that.
“There are a lot of smart people out there and a lot of science. They can put their heads together and do it right.”
The Eddie D, race seven: Gregorian Chant, Juan Hernandez, 4-1; Caribou Club, Drayden Van Dyke, 6-1; Mesut, Umberto Rispoli, 12-1; Charmaine's Mia, Flavien Prat, 10-1; Law Abidin Citizen, Abel Cedillo, 5-1; Chaos Theory, Kent Desormeaux, 15-1; Lieutenant Dan, Geovanni Franco, 7-2; Whisper Not, John Velazquez, 6-1; and Snapper Sinclair, Joel Rosario, 4-1.
The post Hurricane Ida Behind Him, Eddie D At Santa Anita In Spirit For Stakes In His Honor appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
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