Del Mar interested in hosting the Breeders Cup
DiscreetCat
Moderator
from the Daily Breeze:
DEL MAR - Host it, and the fans will come.
Can you imagine a Breeders' Cup at Del Mar? Party Town USA? At the track that needs to only open its gates to attract fans?
San Diego would go absolutely bonkers.
All Del Mar needs to do is widen its turf course to accommodate larger fields and it's here. It's only a matter of time before the seaside track hosts its first Breeders' Cup.
This year, Santa Anita will host the Super Bowl of horse racing Nov. 6-7 for an unprecedented second consecutive year, and Churchill Downs will be the site for a record seventh Breeders' Cup in 2010.
Seeing as though Del Mar president Joe Harper said Wednesday on closing day that the track finished in the black this summer, well, the money is there to expand that grass course.
How about it, Joe? Can we expect to see the Breeders' Cup at Del Mar in 2011?
"It wouldn't be too soon, if we could do it, but I probably think it's better at a later date," Harper told a group of reporters in the press box following the fifth race.
Translation: At a time when many race tracks across America are showing double-
digit declines in on-track attendance and handle, Del Mar is doing well.
"We've had a pretty good year this year," he said. "It looks to me right now like we're probably a million dollars to the better, very close to it, mainly because of five days a week and the fact that our business was good."
Consider that Del Mar has a creative way of balancing its attendance figures.
For instance, management reported an on-track crowd of 42,549 for Pacific Classic day on Sunday, but a good portion of that number showed up after the races for the Ziggy Marley concert in the infield.
Yes, concert-goers were included in the final figure.
Thanks to fans of Ziggy and others who performed in concerts this summer, Del Mar enjoyed an average daily on-track attendance of 17,181, a 7.4 percent hike over last year's 16,002 and the track's highest since 19,685 per day in 1987.
Still, average on-track handle was up 5.8 percent and all-sources handle, which includes Advance Deposit Wagering and out-of-state wagers, showed a slight gain of 0.3 percent.
At a time when national betting figures, according to Equibase, are down 11.1 percent for the year, any figure in the black is a major positive.
But the track's synthetic Polytrack surface, which suffered 12 fatal breakdowns this summer, including eight in the mornings and four in afternoon racing, could be a hindrance to future Breeders' Cup plans.
"It certainly wasn't for Santa Anita. They put two in a row on it," Harper said.
But that was when the majority of trainers loved artificial tracks. It seems the tide has turned and more trainers now either are on the fence or have done a 180-degree turn regarding synthetics.
Well-respected trainers like D. Wayne Lukas, still the Breeders' Cup's all-time leading conditioner, and Nick Zito don't want anything to do with them. And they're not alone.
"I think it will be in some minds," Harper said when asked if Polytrack will be a negative in Del Mar securing a Breeders' Cup bid, which he said still is on the front burner for track officials.
Harper, asked when that day might come, did not want to commit.
"I even hate to say it because it involves sitting down with all the parties, including the leasing commission and the Fair board and deciding where that project fits in," he said.
Prediction: Del Mar will host the Breeders' Cup in 2012 or 2013.
DEL MAR - Host it, and the fans will come.
Can you imagine a Breeders' Cup at Del Mar? Party Town USA? At the track that needs to only open its gates to attract fans?
San Diego would go absolutely bonkers.
All Del Mar needs to do is widen its turf course to accommodate larger fields and it's here. It's only a matter of time before the seaside track hosts its first Breeders' Cup.
This year, Santa Anita will host the Super Bowl of horse racing Nov. 6-7 for an unprecedented second consecutive year, and Churchill Downs will be the site for a record seventh Breeders' Cup in 2010.
Seeing as though Del Mar president Joe Harper said Wednesday on closing day that the track finished in the black this summer, well, the money is there to expand that grass course.
How about it, Joe? Can we expect to see the Breeders' Cup at Del Mar in 2011?
"It wouldn't be too soon, if we could do it, but I probably think it's better at a later date," Harper told a group of reporters in the press box following the fifth race.
Translation: At a time when many race tracks across America are showing double-
digit declines in on-track attendance and handle, Del Mar is doing well.
"We've had a pretty good year this year," he said. "It looks to me right now like we're probably a million dollars to the better, very close to it, mainly because of five days a week and the fact that our business was good."
Consider that Del Mar has a creative way of balancing its attendance figures.
For instance, management reported an on-track crowd of 42,549 for Pacific Classic day on Sunday, but a good portion of that number showed up after the races for the Ziggy Marley concert in the infield.
Yes, concert-goers were included in the final figure.
Thanks to fans of Ziggy and others who performed in concerts this summer, Del Mar enjoyed an average daily on-track attendance of 17,181, a 7.4 percent hike over last year's 16,002 and the track's highest since 19,685 per day in 1987.
Still, average on-track handle was up 5.8 percent and all-sources handle, which includes Advance Deposit Wagering and out-of-state wagers, showed a slight gain of 0.3 percent.
At a time when national betting figures, according to Equibase, are down 11.1 percent for the year, any figure in the black is a major positive.
But the track's synthetic Polytrack surface, which suffered 12 fatal breakdowns this summer, including eight in the mornings and four in afternoon racing, could be a hindrance to future Breeders' Cup plans.
"It certainly wasn't for Santa Anita. They put two in a row on it," Harper said.
But that was when the majority of trainers loved artificial tracks. It seems the tide has turned and more trainers now either are on the fence or have done a 180-degree turn regarding synthetics.
Well-respected trainers like D. Wayne Lukas, still the Breeders' Cup's all-time leading conditioner, and Nick Zito don't want anything to do with them. And they're not alone.
"I think it will be in some minds," Harper said when asked if Polytrack will be a negative in Del Mar securing a Breeders' Cup bid, which he said still is on the front burner for track officials.
Harper, asked when that day might come, did not want to commit.
"I even hate to say it because it involves sitting down with all the parties, including the leasing commission and the Fair board and deciding where that project fits in," he said.
Prediction: Del Mar will host the Breeders' Cup in 2012 or 2013.
Comments
I completely agree with your prediction of 2012 or 2013.
With 2010 at Churchill, they will prolly have a forum assigned for 2011 by the time they run and get all the stats from the 2010 CD BC. If the BC has a larger amount of success than 08/09 on AW in Cali, I think Del Mar's chanced will diminish greatly.
If, however, the handle, attendance, races turn out to be very similar, Del Mar should be expecting a BC.
I think the lack of RA has angered quite a few fans, especially when the owner directly blames the surface. Only time will tell. The next 2-3 years are going to be make or break for synthetics.
Regarding Rachel Alexandra, Jess Jackson, and synthetics, what i find ridiculous about the whole thing is that if Jackson/Asmussen have sucha huge problem with synthetic surfaces, then why did they choose to train Curlin REPEATEDLY over the Keeneland polytrack for a period of a couple of years? It seems to me that it only became a problem once Curlin lost the Classic @ Santa Anita. And judging by what i saw that day, it wasn't the surface that beat him. Curlin made a big move coming around the turn and was clearly takinga hold of the surface just fine. He just got beat by a couple of sharper, completely legitimate Group 1 European horses.
I think Jackson is simply looking to blame Curlin's loss on synthetics in order to preserve (in his own mind, i guess) Curlin's reputation as a stallion. Don't forget that Curlin is covering mares for Jackson these days, and he's no doubt making a lot of money from that. More than Rachel is making on the racetrack, that's for sure.