Jockey Abel Lezcano, who has won 11 races this year, is booked on three mounts on Friday’s opening day at Del Mar after receiving a temporary restraining order earlier this month against the California Horse Racing Board for a seven-day suspension recently.
Lezcano was cited for careless riding in the ninth race at Los Alamitos on June 27. Track stewards suspended Lezcano for failing to maintain a straight course and causing an incident in which another rider was unseated.
Straight No Chaser, the champion sprinter of 2024, will miss the main sprint of the upcoming Del Mar summer meeting – the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes on July 26 – but is under consideration for the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs on Aug. 23.
Straight No Chaser, a 6-year-old who has won 7 of 12 starts, had mixed form in two $2 million races at six furlongs in the Middle East earlier this year. He won the Grade 2 Riyadh Dirt Sprint in Saudi Arabia in February, but was eighth of 11 in the Grade 1 Golden Shaheen in Dubai on April 5.
Preparations for opening day of a race meeting takes many forms.
For track announcer Larry Collmus, who will describe the action at the Del Mar summer meeting that begins on Friday, there is the daily behind-the-scenes approach of marking a program page on an iPad with the colors of silks to better identify runners.
Deana Echols, the longtime executive secretary of the Arkansas Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Horsemen’s Association, died on May 11. Her death was confirmed by Terri Hoffrogge, who is now the ATBHA’s executive secretary. Echols was 76.
Echols, who grew up in racing, was a constant in the ATBHA offices located near the stable gate at Oaklawn. She managed the ATBHA, organized its annual banquet, and also helped organize the banquet put on by the Racetrack Chaplaincy of Arkansas.
Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen won the Lone Star Park training title for the 18th time in his career Sunday, winning 33 races at the 41-date meet. Lone Star is a home track for Asmussen, who lives in nearby Arlington, Texas.
Karl Broberg, another resident of Arlington, won the owners’ title for a track-record ninth time. His stable, End Zone Athletics, won 22 races. Lone Star’s leading rider was Ramon Vazquez, who won 55 races during the meet.
Sunlit Song, the 2023 Texas-bred of the year, has been retired and will have a race named in his honor at Sam Houston Race Park, the Houston track announced.
Sunlit Song won 19 of 50 starts for career earnings of $806,579. The 10-year-old gelding by My Golden Song was bred by Carolyn Barnett, and raced for Barnett and Becky Harding. Sunlit Song won eight stakes, including two runnings of the Richard King Turf at Sam Houston.
Sunlit Song was retired last month, according to a press release from Sam Houston.
Sam Spence, who has been the chaplain at Lone Star Park since the track opened in 1997, said last month that he would be retiring on Aug. 1. He is 86.
Spence served as executive director of the Racetrack Chaplaincy of America for six years in the 1980s and later was the chaplain at the now-shuttered Trinity Meadows near Ft. Worth, Texas. He is an ordained minister and has authored several books on the topic of faith, some against the backdrop of racing.
Insensitive has won back-to-back stakes at her Prairie Meadows base and now could be headed to Kentucky.
Trainer Doug Anderson said Tuesday that the winner of the recent Iowa Distaff is under serious consideration for the $200,000 Groupie Doll, a one-mile race for fillies and mares at Ellis Park on Aug. 10.
“It would be nice get some black type from Kentucky,” Anderson said. “That would help her on down the road.”
Auspicious debuts by the colt Desert Gate and filly Himika this spring at Santa Anita suggest trainer Bob Baffert’s stranglehold on California 2-year-old racing is likely to continue this summer at Del Mar.
Baffert’s 2025 juvenile roster includes at least two dozen colts purchased at auction for roughly $18 million total, with more than a dozen fillies purchased for $5 million total. No wonder Baffert has won the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity 18 times and the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante 10 times – he gets the best stock and gets the most from them.
Purses are higher, the stable area is near capacity, and Friday’s opening day drew more than 100 entrants for 10 races.
There are early indications Del Mar will launch its popular summer meeting with a strong three-day weekend.
The famous track, adjacent to the Pacific Ocean north of San Diego, could do with a successful start after two summers of declines in all-sources handle.
Last year, handle at the summer meeting exceeded $502.9 million, down from more than $527.6 million in 2023. The 2022 meeting had a handle of $579.8 million.
