 Jon Lees | |
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| Jon Lees is an award-winning racing journalist who was senior news reporter for the Racing Post for 20 years, before that he was chief racing correspondent for Britain’s national news agency, the Press Association. He was named Racing Reporter of the Year at the HWPA Derby Awards in 2013. He has travelled extensively covering horse racing, attending his first Breeders’ Cup in 1994. Since 2018 Jon has been a freelance, writing for The Times, the Telegraph, At The Races and Breeders’ Cup, working in PR for Ladbrokes and Newbury racecourse, and regularly contributes to the website horseracingplanet.com. | |
Del Mar Racecourse – Track Analysis (Breeders' Cup Mile & Breeders' Cup Turf):
Del Mar Racecourse, located on the west coast of Southern California, is about 32km north of San Diego and 160km south of Los Angeles. It was established by a group of Hollywood stars led by Bing Crosby in 1937. In 1978, the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club was formed by a group of owners who set out to conduct the annual mid-summer meet from July through to September. In 2017, the track hosted the Breeders’ Cup for the first time in its history, and will host the event for the second time this year.
Del Mar Racecourse, features a left-handed, 1600m oval on dirt, with chutes for races over around 1400m and 2000m on the upper ends of both straights, and a 280m run from the last turn to the winning post. Even by US standards, this is one of the shortest homestretches amongst all first-tier venues. Meanwhile, the turf course, 24m in width all round. After several over-hauls, and re-sod of first-grade Bermuda Grass since 2014, the NTRA has accredited it as one of the safest racetracks in the nation. As a typical left-handed 1400m oval on turf, starting from the third turn, it features a diagonal infield chute that re-joins the course proper by midway through the homestretch, and caters for races over 1700m and 1800m, with the homestretch itself measuring 249m.
Two G1 turf races will be simulcast from Breeders’ Cup this year – The Breeders’ Cup Mile and Breeders’ Cup Turf.
For this year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile, where the barrier is positioned right before the junction of the infield chute and the homestretch, with the field gracing the main stand before completing a full circuit of the oval. Being such a tight track with bankings, breaking from the middle stalls is much preferred, where runners would drop more easily towards the rail and position well early, while an outside stall, presumably gaining even more momentum on the gradient, is neither a complete disadvantage.
In the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar, the first five finishers came from stalls five, four, thirteen, eight and ten in a 14-runner race run on firm ground. MIDNIGHT STORM broke best from stall one to set a hot pace until the field entered the final stretch, where HEART TO HEART briefly took over before being passed by WORLD APPROVAL inside, the final 150m who pulled away to win by a length and a quarter in a time of 1:34.55. On to the records, despite the European invaders sweeping the tote-board in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland, US-based runners have prevailed in seven of the last ten runnings.
On the other hand, starting at the top of the backstretch, the 2400m Breeders’ Cup Turf is a typical “three-turn route”. The field will turn for home and pass by the grandstand for the first time, before completing another full lap of the turf oval. Comparing with 1600m turf races, there is conventionally a lack of data for 2400m, as this trip is unpopular over Del Mar’s race meetings.
When the Breeders’ Cup Turf is last contested at Del Mar in 2017, the first five finishers came from stalls one, eleven, three, twelve and eight. OSCAR PERFORMANCE made the early running but came under pressure from BEACH PATROL on the final turn, who kicked into the lead but was overwhelmed 100m out by TALISMANIC who went on to score by half a length. BEACH PATROL held second and Irish contender and the favourite HIGHLAND REEL was not quickening fast enough late on and only ran third. Historically, this is Europe’s strongest race, with seven of the last ten runnings of the turf falling to the international raiders.
The weather forecast for Del Mar during the week is for partly cloudy days with increasing sunshine over Breeders’ Cup weekend when temperatures could reach 21 degrees and a low likelihood of rain. As a result the going is expected to be firm.
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