Today’s gonna be a big day,” says a parking attendant as I pull into the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. “Zenyatta’s racing. There’s not going to be a seat left in the house.”
“Who’s Zenyatta?” I ask, exposing my ignorance.
She raises an eyebrow, collecting my $8.
“She’s never lost: 17-and-0. And today she’s racing against the boys. That’s why it’s so crazy.”
The traffic into the world-famous Del Mar Fairgrounds had been backed up for miles from the freeway exit, and I was beginning to understand why. Zenyatta was apparently a big deal.
In fact, the 6-year-old mare was gunning for a new world record Aug. 7, in what would be her eighth straight Grade 1/Group I win and 18th consecutive victory overall. The horse of the hour was scheduled to compete in the ninth race of the day, the Clement L. Hirsch Handicap, against males run by four Hall of Fame jockeys.
Owned by record producer Jerry Moss of A&M Records, Zenyatta has already secured her place among the all-time great thoroughbreds. In her last race in June, Zenyatta passed legendary horses Cigar and Citation for the all-time record for consecutive wins in unrestricted stakes races. In other words, Elvis was in the building.
Once parked, I board a tram to the grandstands, and ask an elderly couple next to me if they’re here to see the diva.
“Oh yes,” the woman says, delighted. “She’s undefeated. She’s a big, beautiful horse.”
Zenyatta’s level of celebrity is obvious as soon as I pass through the clubhouse gates, where I’m handed a voucher for free pint glasses featuring the horse and her jockey, Mike Smith. Nearby vendors hawk Zenyatta hats and T-shirts.
From there, I walk through clouds of cigar smoke to a neatly manicured paddock, where jockeys parade the horses around in a circle as men in fine Italian suits and women in sun hats look on approvingly.
The first post begins shortly after 2 p.m. The weather is idyllic, as I imagine is regularly the case at this popular destination for the jet set. The grandstands look to be sold out, with spectators eager for the races to begin.
Laurie Frapwell, a mother from nearby Scripps Ranch, explains what the races mean to the area.
“It’s a huge deal,” she says. “It’s fun. A lot of people come here to drink.”
I raise my $8 Newcastle in acknowledgement. I ask Frapwell if she ever wins anything.
“I’m not a big gambler,” she says. “I always pick the worst ones. I just like the horses.”
Motioning to her 16-year-old son Kris Huffman, she adds, “I don’t want him to think it’s OK to gamble.”
Huffman however, has other plans.
“I have two years left,” he says, “And then I can do it.”
I decide to try my own luck. Back inside the clubhouse, I navigate my way through voucher machines and electronic tellers, acquainting myself with trifectas, quinellas, and superfectas. For the day’s second race, a six-and-a-half furlong stretch, I put $2 on a 5-to-2 shot named Tribal Justice to win. And I wait.
From my position against the trackside railing, I watch as the jockeys take the horses out on the track for a jog before they’re loaded into the starting gate. They’re so amped up and ready to go, one spectator explains, they need exercise with a familiar companion horse to help calm them down.
The trumpeter plays the call to post; horses are gated, and from there, Tribal Justice doesn’t have a chance. The filly fades right out of the gate, and my hopes drop. Even so, around the final turn, the crowds rise to their feet in a fever pitch. Hooves thunder past, and suddenly, I get it: The rush.
In a flash, Leaving New York ekes out a win, ridden by recently reinstated jockey Patrick Valenzuela. Valenzuela is notorious at Del Mar for once having shaved off all his body hair prior to a drug test and being “permanently” banned from riding in 2008 by the California Horse Racing Board.
“It’s one of the few times they’ll test the jockey for drugs and not the horse,” says Bill Tamburrino, a local sportswriter who admits he comes out to the track “a little too regularly.”
Up close, I hear the horses panting and see them sweat, veins bulging out from under their hide. Tamburrino explains the effect is due to a legal drug called Lasix, used to keep the horses’ lungs from filling up with blood while they’re racing.
I frown. Switching gears, I ask him about the track.
“On Saturdays and Sundays, there’s big crowds,” he says. “Thursdays and Fridays there’s nobody here. It’s pretty nice.”
The racetrack at Del Mar was built in 1937, and has since become a premier destination for the world’s best jockeys and horses. Even the legendary Willie Shoemaker called the seaside spot home.
“It has the best jockey colony in the world,” Tamburrino says of Del Mar. “There’s no cold. The track is hardly ever sloppy. They’re always fast.”
The pint-sized riders, he explains, are rock stars in these parts—notorious for drinking, drugs, and debauchery, and occasionally getting tossed out of bars and arrested.
“It’s like a day at the beach for them,” he said. “Jockeys love coming here. It’s a vacation.”
The jockeys used to take the horses out for walks on the sand, Tamburrino explains, until tighter regulations on treatment of the animals ended the practice. Today, they parade them only in the clubhouse paddock, and Tamburrino says he’s amazed by the crowds who flocked there the previous Thursday just to catch a glimpse of Zenyatta.
“When she walked out, she was majestic,” he says. “She put on a show. She was like a model or a star athlete. They say the great ones have a presence. Well, that horse has a presence.”
“She’s probably the best horse running,” he adds. “But this track sort of jinxes some horses.”
As the races continue—and I continue losing money—rumors swirl that Zenyatta’s trainer is getting cold feet about racing his prized mare today because of the track’s “clumpy” condition.
“Somebody told me she might not run,” spectator Frapwell says. “That would be a shame because a lot of people came to see that horse.”
After much discussion, in the end, Zenyatta’s trainers decide to race her after all, possibly influenced by the $300,000 stakes. She comes in heavily favored, at 1-to-9. Starting back in the fifth position, she creeps up slowly, passing horses one by one, before charging around the final turn. She hits the straightaway, racing neck-and-neck with Rinterval, a male thoroughbred, into the final furlong. She holds off the challenger by a head, and ends up tying 18th century thoroughbred Eclipse with 18 consecutive victories.
“She doesn’t win by much, but it’s the way she wins,” the track announcer screams over the PA system. “It gives you goosebumps.”
Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas needs betting tips. Send them to jthomas@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Aug 12-19, 2010.
