Turf at Del Mar Is Not Par for the Course

They ran the seventh race here on Monday, but not exactly as scheduled.

Six minutes before post time, it was announced that the $78,000 allowance race was being moved from the grass to the dirt because of complaints by jockeys who had ridden the turf course earlier in the day.

A sprinkler malfunction on Friday, combined with racing over the turf course on Saturday and Sunday, caused some soft spots on the clubhouse turn.

“My horse [Marran] and the horses [Kent] Desormeaux and [Corey] Nakatani were on all bobbled on the first turn,” jockey Gary Stevens said. “There were holes out there.”

After that race, won by 5-1 shot Jadada, there was some discussion about having the orange traffic cones horses often work around in the morning put on the course.

Stewards Dave Samuel, Ingrid Fermin and Dennis Nevin objected to that, so the race was moved to the main track.

“The safest thing to do was to run on the main track,” Samuel said.

Del Mar President Joe Harper is hopeful the course will be ready for use when racing resumes Wednesday. There are two turf races scheduled on the eight-race card.

With the switch to dirt, Perim, who was scheduled to make his first start since Aug. 30, 1997, was scratched, leaving only four starters.

Anet, who would also have been the favorite on the turf, easily won as the 2-5 favorite. It was the first win for the 4-year-old son of Clever Trick, who is owned by Don Dizney and trained by Bob Baffert.