Jockey taken to hospital after being thrown off horse during Del Mar Futurity

The first 35 days of Del Mar’s 80th summer meeting had gone so smooth that Del Mar Thoroughbred Club chief executive Joe Harper went into Monday’s closing program “waiting this whole day for something to happen.”

And it did, strides after the start of the 296th of 297 races ... which happened to be the featured Grade I Del Mar Futurity.

Leading Del Mar riders Flavien Prat and Drayden Van Dyke both were thrown from their mounts as the two inside horses made contact near the three-quarter pole on Del Mar’s backstretch.

Van Dyke went backwards off the Bob Baffert-trained 1-2 favorite Eight Rings. A split second later, Prat came off Storm the Court. Both horses continued on and were later given a clean bill of health by track veterinarians.

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Collision soon after the start of Del Mar Futurity between No. 2 Eight Rings and No. 1 Storm the Court on Sept. 2, 2019.

Prat returned to win the final race of the meeting aboard Zee Drop. Van Dyke was taken to Scripps Hospital in La Jolla, where an X-ray reportedly was negative.

Longshot Nucky ($72), ridden by Norberto Arroyo Jr., went on to win the seven-furlong dirt feature for 2-year-olds by 23/4 lengths over Wrecking Crew.

Del Mar completed the summer season with no racing deaths and four in training, two of which died in a freak head-on collision.

“This meeting was the big breath of fresh air the sport needed,” Harper said in his annual post-meeting press conference Monday night. “A lot of depressed people came down here from Santa Anita.

“Not one horse was injured in a race; that has to mean something. I guess it says we are on the right path. Thank the horsemen for putting up with all the changes. Without a doubt, this is the most gratifying meet I have ever been a part of.

“This was a tough meeting going into it from our point of view. But the meeting was the best we’ve ever had in safety. California racing needed some place to right the ship, and we did. And the racing got better as the meet went along.”

Del Mar completed the meet as the safest major racetrack in the nation for the second straight year. But on-track attendance was down around 14% and the handle fell by 10.9%.

The events at the start, however, were the main topic of discussion.

Nucky, right, with jockey Norberto Arroyo Jr. riding, won the Del Mar Futurity at Del Mar on Monday.

(K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Both Storm the Court from the inside post and Eight Rings veered slightly to the inside leaving the gate. Eight Rings then veered to his right before coming back in sharply to bump Storm the Court, sending both riders flying.

“It was obviously unfortunate,” said Peter Miller, the trainer of the top two Futurity finishers. “You never want to see any horse or rider go down. My first thoughts were with the horses and riders. I don’t know what happened.”

Neither did Arroyo.

“I was looking for Eight Rings,” Arroyo said after the race. “My aim was to track him. But I couldn’t see him at all, so I knew something must have happened. What a way to end the meet. I don’t deserve this, but somebody wanted me to have it.

“I don’t know if Nucky was the best horse in the race to start, but he was the best to finish.”

Earlier, Victor Espinoza started to work on his second hundred stakes wins at Del Mar by riding Yesterdayoncemore ($24) to a length victory over Croughavouke in a 1-2-3 sweep by Irish-bred fillies in the one-mile Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf.

“This has been a very good meet for me,” said Espinoza, who scored his 100th Del Mar stakes win Saturday, just 14 months after suffering severe neck injuries in a morning workout spill at Del Mar. “I really couldn’t have asked for anything more. She is built strong and I thought she’d love this turf ... sure enough.”