Joe Harper | Breeders ‘Cup / Eclipse Sportswire
The Del Mar Summer Meetup, always a hot Southern California attraction, couldn’t have gone better this year. The rack sets records for average daily handling and average field size, and, importantly, recording no racing or training deaths, the fourth stakes that Del Mar responds to. response without any racing problems. Tuesday, Del Mar CEO Joe Harper joined the TDN . Writers Room Presented by Keeneland as Green Team Guest of the Week to talk about how the track has become the gold standard for racehorse safety, what the future holds for Del Mar, his childhood acting career and more.
“We spent $5 million to create a new surface,” Harper said when asked the key to eliminating the problem. “It’s like picking up a rug and shaking it off and putting it down again. We reschedule the rides and I think the main thing is to just keep an eye on these horses in the morning as well as when [trainers] put on stalled applications. I want to know where they’ve been, how long have they been laid off, why there’s been layoffs, look at the vet records, and then when they get here, we’ve got an eye on them. We’ve hired several vets to follow up with morning exercises, and they’re really good. They know every horse on the field. They know the trainers. So if they see something amiss, they’ll call the trainer and say they’re going to visit the barn and see this horse. I think it took a while for the cultural change to seep in. A little, [when horsemen say] “I think we have one more race on this horse,” told them, “I think it’s time to retire them.” It’s great that that culture change and the riders accept the fact that we all have to do something. The valve is multi-active. It worked the first year and it got a little better every year. “
Elsewhere in the show, also sponsored by Coolmore, KTOB, Lane’s End, XBTV, Purebred West Point, Three chimneys and Legacy BloodstockJoe Bianca, Bill Finley and co-host Barry Spears react to weekend closures at Del Mar and Flightline (Tapit) of the stud agreement at Lane’s End. Click here to watch the show; Click here to see the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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This story was posted in Top News and tagged Barry Spears, Bill Finley, Del Mar, Flight route, Joe Bianca, Joe Harper, Lane’s End, Writer’s Room.
