Del Mar Holds a Place in His Heart : Horse racing: Trainer Bruce Headley has had success on his annual trip to the beach.

There’s an adjective in trainer Bruce Headley’s thumbnail biography in the Del Mar media guide that makes Headley wince as though he’s looking at a photo finish and his horse is a nose behind the winner’s.

”. . . Has had success despite unorthodox methods . . .”

Headley grimaces at the suggestion.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “I think they’re advanced training methods.”

Whether unorthodox--a word Headley does not utter--or advanced, the trainer knows how he picked them up--by learning the trade at Del Mar.

Headley, 58, has been working with thoroughbreds at the seaside oval since 1950. It’s his favorite track, and he was the first trainer to arrive with his stable this year before the 52nd racing season, which begins today. First post is 2 p.m.

“I just love Del Mar,” Headley said. “I love to come down here and prepare for the meeting.”

While many feel the magic of Del Mar emanates from its Hollywood connections of the past, Headley sees another source of its charm--the beach.

“You know that word you used,” Headley said, referring to unorthodox, “maybe that’s where the source of it came from.”

Headley must speak of the beach in the same tone and verb tense he uses when he recalls the days of Durante, Crosby, Desi and Lucy.

Except to shoot television commercials, track officials no longer permit the thoroughbreds along the shoreline. A storm 11 years ago wiped out the path linking the turf to the surf, and because of the North County’s population boom, it was deemed too dangerous to reestablish the trail.

So Headley is without the training terrain that inspired him to allow his horses to open into a full gallop for long distances, something other trainers wouldn’t think of doing.

“It was such an even surface to gallop on,” he said. “You could train a long way because it was so smooth. I used to train exclusively on the beach at Del Mar. You could go out there at 4:30 in the morning and never see a soul, except for a hermit that lived up in a cliff.”

Beside the seclusion, the mental image that has stayed with Headley from his days on the beach is that of the sand itself.

“When the hoof would come down, it came down with such force you could see the sand drying out three feet in every direction,” he said.

For a trainer who refuses to use drugs of any kind on his horses, the beach offered another benefit to Headley--a chance to cool and relax the animals in the ocean.

Headley would lure the horses into the Pacific until the water rose to the horse’s belly.

“Sometimes you would have to turn the horses around so they couldn’t see what they were stepping into and back them in,” he said. “But very quickly they all learned to actually love the sea water. The water would draw all the heat from them very quickly. It was nature’s free medicine to the horses.”

With the beach off-limits, Headley has become more orthodox, galloping his thoroughbreds on the track with those from other stables and hosing them down afterward.

The changing demographics of the North County have affected the trainers as well as the horses.

The surrounding area used to be just that, a surrounding area. It is now quintessential Southern California urban sprawl. A mini-mall here, condominium projects everywhere else, not to mention rental fees high enough to be considered as down payments elsewhere in the country.

“That’s the only bad part about Del Mar,” Headley said. “With the rent out here, it’s like a legal black market. Most people have to save all year to come to Del Mar.”

For his near-three-month stay in Del Mar, Headley pays $7,500 in rent.

But he’s not complaining.

“The good far outweighs the bad,” he said. “If you want to play, you must pay.

“Hey, this is fun. We get to bring the family and it’s great to see everyone’s kids every year. They’re all out playing on the beach, eating in the same restaurants. Here we can see competitors as friends.”