Hotel Guests Will Please Remain Standing While They Sleep

San Diego’s largest hotel opened this week. That may be news to the Convention and Visitors Bureau, but you can’t argue against a place that can greet more than 3,300 guests in less than 36 hours.

In truth, this “resort” is not new, just very seasonal in nature.

As might be expected, it is near a beach. It gets a freshening sea breeze, which is particularly nice if the visitors are used to choking on the air in the Los Angeles area.

Accommodations are remarkably varied, some more convenient than others and some quieter. Some are cozy and indoors for conservative types, others airy and outdoors for the adventurous. Further, a few lucky guests get an ocean view. All digs are single occupancy, though not necessarily private.

Unfortunately, none of these guests choose their own accommodations, though they have been known to kick up fusses when they don’t like them.

There are some very nice restaurants nearby, but all would have reservations about feeding any of these guests . . . just as the guests themselves would snort at dining at any of the restaurants. Of course, these guests are so pampered that every one of them gets room service for every meal.

This hotel, as you have perhaps suspected, is not really a hotel at all.

However, the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club might as well be. Name another place hereabouts that books room for 3,300 guests and gets them all comfortable between dawn on one day and dusk the next, especially when 2,200 are horses.

Indeed, the pace was probably more hectic Monday and Tuesday than it will be today, when the 50th season begins with post time at 2 p.m.

“Last week, this was like a ghost town,” said Mac McBride, a public relations aide-de-camp. “This week, it’s like Grand Central Station.”

That’s how quickly it happens. Hollywood Park shuts down Monday, and Del Mar opens Wednesday. Zap. Pow. The flag is up.

It’s quick, but not easy.

Charlie McIntire stood in the middle of a cluttered office, his sleeves rolled up and his hair disheveled. A computer lay dormant on a nearby table, as if the task at hand was too much for it. A map of the Del Mar grounds was spread out on desks shoved together.

McIntire, the stable superintendent by summer and an economics teacher at San Dieguito High School by fall, winter and spring, looked down at the map.

“It’s like a big jigsaw puzzle,” he said. “All of the pieces better fit together . . . or you’re in trouble.”

Some 235 trainers had bid for 2,019 permanent stalls and maybe 200 portables, the open air corrals held together by baling wire and covered with camping tarps. Racing Secretary Tom Robbins confirms reservations, and McIntire fits it all into place.

Stall assignments scribbled in pencil covered McIntire’s map, some of them in large print for trainers occupying the maximum of 32 stalls and some in the smallest of print for trainers using only one or two or three.

“This is a holding barn with 22 stalls,” McIntire said, indicating an area without scribbling. “This is for horses that come in, run, stay overnight and then leave.”

Those are the transients.

Most of the guests settle down for a seven-week stay, among them the 1,100 humans who handle the horses. Many will get dormitory space, albeit rather Spartan, and others will simply bunk down in the barns.

Indeed, the same trucks delivering horses--from pickups with trailers to big rigs--also unloaded roll - away beds, bureaus, hot plates, microwaves and refrigerators. The race track is a city in which the human being is a minority.

Meanwhile, McIntire’s telephone constantly rang as trainers pleaded for more space.

“You’re a buddy of mine,” McIntire said soothingly to one caller. “You know I’ll see what I can do for you.”

McIntire cannot do anything for trainers such as Ron McAnally, because the big guys max out at 32 stalls and can get no more.

“I had 47 horses at Hollywood Park,” McAnally said, “so I have to figure out what to do with the rest. I’ll send some to Santa Anita and some to San Luis Rey Downs, and I bring the ones that’re ready to run to Del Mar.”

The shuffling comes when a trainer has maybe five stalls and needs six or seven. Understand that all horses need a place to stay, not just the thoroughbreds. A trainer’s allotment also has to handle stable ponies.

And the price is right, regardless of the accommodations.

“Everything is gratis,” McIntire said. “This hotel is gratis.”

Basically, the race track provides the accommodations because the guests provide the entertainment. These visitors don’t need credit card imprints to get to their rooms.

The telephone rang. McIntire talked, and his face broadened in a smile. He turned his pencil to the eraser end and leaned over the map.

“I got some stalls back,” he said. “Manna from heaven.”