Racegoers Club: Bucket list item ticked!
My racegoer’s bucket list has a huge tick next to one of the entries – the Breeders’ Cup. From the first time the Breeders’ Cup was staged at Del Mar in 2017, it was always the number one choice for me. Amazingly, Del Mar has hosted it on four occasions in the last nine years. So, I figured this was the year to go, as it could be a good few years before it’s back at the venue, where ‘the turf meets the surf ’.
We flew into San Diego on the Wednesday evening. After a couple of drinks in our hotel, we headed to bed 23 hours after I’d got up. But there was no lie-in the next day. We had an early start
– our coach left at 6.45am heading to Del Mar for our first glimpse of the track.
Our itinerary included a marquee breakfast whilst watching the Breeders’ Cup contenders go through their paces in their morning workouts on the track. As we tucked into our gourmet breakfast, there were numerous horses working. I’ve attended Breakfast With The Stars, where a handful of Derby and Oaks contenders get acquainted with the idiosyncrasies of Epsom Downs, but this was on a different level.
There were horses exercising all over the place. Suddenly, the commentator announced that Aidan’s army were entering the track. You could sense the frisson of excitement, as The Lion In Winter led the Ballydoyle brigade in the opposite direction past the stands. There were a dozen of them, if not more. After walking a lap, they turned and cantered down the back stretch, before increasing the tempo as they galloped past us towards the winning line. It was a sight to behold.
That set the tone for the day.
Afterwards we headed to the beach in Coronado, San Diego, followed by a drinks reception and Breeders’ Cup preview at our hotel, featuring Frankie [Dettori] and Oisin [Murphy], hosted brilliantly by Matt Chapman. He is marmite, but he has no peer when he’s asking those awkward questions, and it made for a highly entertaining evening with lots of laughs.
Why is it that the eve of a big event often generates so much anticipation and excitement? Think Christmas Eve as a child, or the Monday before the Cheltenham Festival. Our Thursday before the Breeders’ Cup was up there with those days.
The first five races on the Friday are non-Breeders’ Cup races, so we had plenty of time to familiarise ourselves with the amenities. Our reserved seats just inside the final furlong provided us with a great view of the action. Although we got a shock when we decided to have a drink – $16 for a pint of beer and that’s before the tax and obligatory tip are added! American racegoers visiting UK courses probably think £7.50 for a pint of Guinness is a steal.
There were two Irish trained winners on the first day. Balantina won the Juvenile Fillies Turf for Donnacha O’Brien. And no, Oisin didn’t tell us that was his best chance the night before. But to be fair to him, Precise was still in the race at the time. Aidan’s Gstaad won the last race, sending a lot of punters home happy. Interestingly, he paid the same for a place as he did for the win
at 6-5.
There was another early start on the Saturday, with the 12-race card kicking off at 10.05am. Even our winter jumps meetings don’t start that early! There were just three undercard races before
the main event started. You could feel the atmosphere change and the buzz of excitement as the runners for the first of nine Breeders’ Cup races left the paddock.
The four of us – friends Paul and Linda, my wife Sarah and me – agreed that we needed to have a go at one of the exotic bets, so we chose the Pick 4 on the turf races. We made our choices and permed them in the hope of a big payout. We had the winners of the Sprint, the Mile and the Distaff. In the Turf we had Rebel’s Romance. We were so close and but for that man [Willie] Mullins and Ethical Diamond, we’d have had a fistful of dollars to take to San Francisco for the second part of our holiday.
All in all, we had a great experience, and we have some great memories of Del Mar. I highly recommend it.