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Del Mar Cancels July 17-19 Racing After 15 More Jockeys Test Positive For COVID-19

With caution its primary concern, Del Mar has preemptively canceled its next three days of racing, July 17-18-19, after 15 jockeys tested positive for COVID-19. All of Del Mar's jockeys and jockey room personnel were tested on Tuesday by San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency staff as requested by the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif.

“Assuming these individuals continue to show no symptoms, they will be isolated for a total of 10 days and should be able to resume their usual activities, including riding after that time,” said Dr. Eric McDonald, Medical Director, Epidemiology & Immunizations Services, County of San Diego.

“Racing will return on July 24,” said Joe Harper, Del Mar's CEO. “Canceling this weekend's races will give us additional time to monitor the situation and give the individuals who tested positive additional time to recover.”

On Tuesday, based on DMTC protocols, as well as direction from medical advisers and county public health officials, the testing was administered by county medical staff. Fifteen of the jockeys tested positive and all were believed to be asymptomatic. Contact tracing procedures are underway in conjunction with the San Diego Health & Human Services Agency. However, a common factor among all but one of the riders that tested positive is that they rode at the recently concluded Los Alamitos meet.

Del Mar officials ordered the testing of all the jockeys and jockeys' room personnel after two riders, Flavien Prat and Victor Espinoza, tested positive for COVID-19.

“Even though our jockey colony did not exhibit symptoms when they arrived at Del Mar, we made the decision to test everyone as part of protocols we have developed in conjunction with local medical experts and the San Diego County Health & Human Services Agency,” said Josh Rubinstein, Del Mar Thoroughbred President and COO. “We put these measures in place to help ensure the safety of all workers at Del Mar and our surrounding community.”

Because of the Health Insurance Privacy and Portability Act (HIPPA), Del Mar is not allowed to release the names of the affected riders.

In a further safety measure, only jockeys based in California will be permitted to ride at Del Mar for the remainder of the meeting. Jockeys from jurisdictions outside of California will not be allowed to ride at Del Mar. The measure to restrict the riding colony follows a similar announcement Tuesday by the New York Racing Association concerning jockeys at Saratoga Race Course. Under Del Mar's new policy, until further notice, local jockeys who leave the track to ride at other venues will not be allowed to ride again at Del Mar for the remainder of the summer racing meeting.

Additionally, Del Mar officials are re-configuring and expanding the track's jockeys' quarters, including moving some of the functions that normally take place in the jockeys' room to an adjacent area.

Del Mar has been providing health screening, monitoring and testing resources for barn area workers and essential personnel during its summer meet, which is being held for the first time in the track's 81-year history without spectators. The meet began Friday July 10th and will conclude on Labor Day, September 7.

Del Mar's health and safety protocols have been formulated with direct input from medical experts in the community.

“We have worked with Del Mar to apply practical health protocols for its essential personnel and we applaud the track's continued vigilance to help provide a safe environment for its work force,” said Dr. Ghazala Sharieff, MD, Corporate Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at San Diego's Scripps Health. “We can reasonably expect that there will be some additional positive tests. The key is to provide strategies and protocols for testing, quarantining, containment and management, all of which Del Mar is doing in cooperation with local public health experts and officials.”

Del Mar's racing officials have said that many of the races that had been scheduled for the upcoming weekend will be shifted to the following weekend. That includes the Grade 2, $150,000 San Diego Handicap and the Grade 2 $200,000 Eddie Read Stakes.

The Thoroughbred Owners of California said they are in agreement with Del Mar's measures. “TOC strongly supports the actions taken today by the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in conjunction with the San Diego County Department of Health. The health of our riders is our top priority now.”

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Del Mar Cancels Weekend Racing

Del Mar has cancelled its weekend racing–scheduled to run Friday through Sunday–because of multiple jockeys testing positive for COVID-19, as first reported in Daily Racing Form.

In a subsequent press release Wednesday afternoon, Del Mar explained that all of the track’s jockeys and jockey room personnel were tested on Tuesday by San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency staff, with 15 jockeys showing up positive for COVID-19. All were reportedly asymptomatic.

“Racing will return on July 24,” added Joe Harper, Del Mar’s CEO, in the release. “Canceling this weekend’s races will give us additional time to monitor the situation and give the individuals who tested positive additional time to recover.”

This weekend’s card was scheduled to include the GII San Diego H. and the GII Eddie Read S.

Contact tracing procedures are underway in conjunction with the San Diego Health & Human Services Agency, the press release explained, pointing as a “common factor” to Los Alamitos, where five jockeys–Flavien Prat, Victor Espinoza, Eduard Rojas Fernandez, Luis Saez and Martin Garcia–who rode there over the July 4 weekend subsequently testing positive for COVID-19.

Del Mar is not permitted to release the names of the affected riders because of the Health Insurance Privacy and Portability Act (HIPPA). However, it appears that one of the jockeys to have tested positive is Umberto Rispoli, who Tweeted Wednesday, “I’m feeling more than well, quarantined, and looking forward to comeback stronger than before.”

Jockey Drayden Van Dyke also Tweeted, “Tested positive yes, but feel good, thank god and will quarantine with respect for others.”

When racing resumed at Del Mar July 10, it did so with different restrictions regarding jockey COVID protocols than what had been instituted at Santa Anita to tackle spread of the virus. For example, jockeys weren’t mandated to be tested prior to riding over a weekend, as Santa Anita required.

That decision was reversed last Sunday, when Del Mar announced that before racing resumed this Friday, the track would test all jockeys and jockeys’ room personnel.

Unlike Santa Anita, Del Mar initially permitted jockeys and their agents onto the backstretch during morning training. A Del Mar spokesperson told TDN Monday that jockeys had since been barred from the backstretch.

In Wednesday’s press release, Del Mar outlined a series of enhanced jockey safety measures at the track.

For example, only jockeys based in California will be permitted to ride at Del Mar for the remainder of the meeting, barring out-of-state jockeys from competing at the track.

“The measure to restrict the riding colony follows a similar announcement Tuesday by the New York Racing Association concerning jockeys at Saratoga Race Course. Under Del Mar’s new policy, until further notice, local jockeys who leave the track to ride at other venues will not be allowed to ride again at Del Mar for the remainder of the summer racing meeting,” the press release stated.

Del Mar also announced that it was “re-configuring and expanding the track’s jockeys’ quarters, including moving some of the functions that normally take place in the jockeys’ room to an adjacent area.”

As noted in the press release, Del Mar has been screening, monitoring and testing backstretch workers and other personnel–part of a set of health and safety protocols formulated with direct input from medical experts in the community.

“We have worked with Del Mar to apply practical health protocols for its essential personnel and we applaud the track’s continued vigilance to help provide a safe environment for its work force,” said Dr. Ghazala Sharieff, MD, Corporate Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at San Diego’s Scripps Health. “We can reasonably expect that there will be some additional positive tests. The key is to provide strategies and protocols for testing, quarantining, containment and management, all of which Del Mar is doing in cooperation with local public health experts and officials.”

The Del Mar racing office also sent out additional information Wednesday afternoon to the horsemen, explaining that an extra sheet would be compiled for Friday, and there exists the possibility of additional days of racing being added. No jockeys will be permitted to ride workers until further notice.

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Welfare Of Humans, Horses Top Priority At Del Mar Summer Meet

The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club (DMTC) will continue its enhanced safety measures for its horses and riders, while now also implementing a new set of protocols and procedures to ensure human safety, as its seaside Thoroughbred headquarters prepares to celebrate its 81st season of racing.

The horse/rider initiatives amplify the effective safety and welfare measures that Del Mar introduced over the last several seasons of racing and which have led to it being recognized as one the safest racetracks in the U.S. for both 2018 and 2019, according to The Jockey Club's Equine Injury Database, which ranks Del Mar as among the safest major racetracks in the country with a rate of 0.79 fatal injuries per 1,000 starts in 2018 and 0.62 in 2019. The national average for track's reporting was 1.68.

Additionally, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the track also will take the unprecedented step of racing without fans in attendance in 2020 and with an extensive series of health and safety measures in place for all mandatory personnel.

“We're all about safety here,” said DMTC's CEO Joe Harper. “Safety and health will be our focus for the people involved with putting on this year's extraordinary race meet, but we'll also be continuing with our safety reforms for the well-being of our riders and horses.”

Working with health and medical experts in the county and state, Del Mar has put together a large-scale human safety program that will ensure those onsite at the 340-acre Del Mar Racetrack will have the most secure working environment possible during the 28-day session that runs from July 10 to September 7.

Among the daily measures that will be implemented throughout the 2020 summer race meeting at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club:

Admittance to the facility will be strictly limited to essential personnel
Daily on-site health screening for all personnel, which include temperature checks
All personnel will be required to wear face coverings
Some staff – such as jockeys and the starting gate crew – will be required to wear additional personal protective equipment
Proper social distancing will be required
Additional handwashing and sanitizer stations throughout the Grandstand and stable area
Enhanced janitorial services including daily disinfectant of all “common areas”
No congregation of people will be permitted in the saddling/paddock area
Saddling/paddock area and starting gate will be disinfected after each race
On-site medical personnel
Quarantine area procedures

Additionally, access to the Del Mar stable area will be limited to those licensed individuals who work directly with the horses. Stable area personnel will be subject to the same mask/wristbands/distance rules all frontside individuals will work under.

As for the track's extensive horse/rider safety program, it again will follow its well-considered and newly bolstered set of racing safety protocols that have been a model for best practices adopted by other tracks across the nation. Among racing steps that will be in place for the upcoming Thoroughbred stand are:

Entry Review Panel. The continuation of a panel of experts made up of regulatory veterinarians who will oversee the entries of all horses and provide an additional review of each of their medical, training and racing history. The panel will recommend to the track's Stewards that any horse it deems unfit for competition not be allowed to race.
Medication Reform. Del Mar will further its adoption of reforms modeled after the International Federation Horseracing Association (IFHA) requirements. Rules surrounding NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories) have been enhanced and extended and additional rules regarding other equine medications have been clarified and codified.
Increases in out-of-competition testing. Random testing will continue on for any horse at Del Mar, including ones readying for – or having just completed – morning workouts.
Enhanced stable security. As before, and working in conjunction with the investigative staff of the CHRB, an enhanced stable security team will monitor all aspects of the stable area to ensure that rules are properly followed.
Veterinary protocols for morning training. Just as they were last summer, veterinarians will be stationed at elevated observation points at the facility to oversee morning workouts and will have the ability – through communication with outriders – to remove horses from the racetrack and have them undergo a follow-up soundness examination.
Prohibit the use of the riding crop during morning workouts. Exercise riders and jockeys again will be prohibited from using a riding crop to encourage their horses during morning workouts. Del Mar continues to work with the CHRB and the Jockey's Guild on additional guidelines for riding crop use.
Stakeholder Advisory Committee. DMTC created a stakeholder advisory committee last summer represented by trainers, veterinarians, jockeys, racing surfaces maintenance personnel and management that met regularly to discuss safety practices, operations and track surfaces. That committee will be in session during 2020 also.
In addition, the conditions of all horses stabled at Del Mar (approximately 1,800) once more will be thoroughly analyzed by Del Mar's racing department regularly with specific conditions (e.g., gaps in racing or workout activity) flagged for additional scrutiny.

Over the past three years, Del Mar made a series of changes and adjustments aimed at horse and rider safety. Those measures will carry forward to this summer and include:

The highly professional work of our directors of racing surfaces maintenance. In 2017, DMTC hired Dennis Moore, widely considered the top track maintenance professional in the industry. Moore immediately changed Del Mar's banking and grading to conform with the other racing surfaces in Southern California, allowing an easy transition for horses competing in the Los Angeles-area. Moore's exceptional work – as well as the untiring efforts of our grass course specialist Leif Dickinson – will be at the heart of the track's safety efforts.
Fewer horses on the grounds. Over the past several seasons, DMTC has reduced the number of horses allowed on the grounds by more than 15% – from approximately 2,100 to 1,800. Fewer horses alleviated demand for access to the main track during busy morning training hours, creating a safer training environment.

Adjusted morning workouts. DMTC allowed only “workers” (those going at race speed, not joggers or gallopers) on the track for the first 10 minutes following the first two morning breaks. It has proven to be a successful safety procedure that has been adopted by other tracks in the industry.

Enhanced veterinary inspections. DMTC will continue to employ additional veterinarians to conduct pre-race inspections and monitor pre-race activities for starters, creating four distinct veterinary observation points for horses on race day.

Racing Surfaces expert Dr. Mick Peterson. DMTC continues to be aided by the services of Dr. Mick Peterson, director of University of Kentucky's Equine Ag Programs and Professor of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, widely recognized as the nation's foremost track surfaces analyst.

In addition, in 2019 DMTC joined the Thoroughbred Safety Coalition, an association of major U.S. racing organizations committed to meaningful reforms and accountability across U.S. racing jurisdictions. Del Mar remains fully accredited by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association's Safety and Integrity Alliance for its upcoming season, having passed a complete review of equine and track safety protocols, injury reporting and prevention, medication testing, jockey health and safety best practices, wagering integrity and equine aftercare policies at its most recent testing.

Del Mar will race on a Friday-Saturday-Sunday schedule throughout the summer, finishing its meet with a traditional closing day card on Labor Day Monday. First post daily will be 2 p.m.

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