Tedesco was Del Mar's Man of the Meeting

By Ed Zieralski, UNION-TRIBUNE

Tuesday, September 7, 2010 at 4:38 p.m.

John Gibbins / Union-Tribune

It is the first day after the San Diego County Fair closed and Richard Tedesco, the new racetrack supervisor, drove a grader around the practice track, preparing it for the meet, which starts July 21.

DEL MAR — On the morning of Aug. 7 at the Del Mar Racetrack, the historic day that Zenyatta won her 18th straight race, track superintendent Richard Tedesco was scrambling.
Zenyatta’s trainer, John Shirreffs, was ready to pull his super mare out of the Clement L. Hirsch Stakes because he didn’t believe Del Mar’s Polytrack was safe for racing. But Tedesco told Shirreffs, whom he has known since the trainer was a groom, that he had a plan to make the track right.
Earlier that morning, exercise rider Chris Aplin, who works out of trainer Bill Spawr’s barn, took a bucketful of the Polytrack mix to Tedesco and showed him what was clumping together and sticking to the horses’ hooves. That’s when Tedesco got the idea to add water -- lots of water -- to the synthetic surface.
“From that day on, from the day Zenyatta was here, I started a whole new maintenance program for this track, and it has worked,” Tedesco said. “I took the sticky stuff and put it under a faucet. I saw what the water did with it. I held everybody up. We doubled the water and turned everything around.”
That was just the start. Tedesco then decided to dig deeper during the rototilling sessions on Monday, two days after Zenyatta thrilled 32,536 fans, at the time the biggest crowd ever to see races here on a day that wasn’t Opening Day or the Pacific Classic. Tedesco utilized a cultivator to go deeper into the track.
“We went deeper and pulled up the old track that hadn’t been used because they never went that deep,” Tedesco said. “It was loaded with wax that hadn’t been used. It was the Monday after Zenyatta ran. It was sunny and pretty here, and we changed this whole racetrack.”
Trainers, jockeys, and most importantly, horses, noticed the difference. Going into today's final day of the 71st meeting, the 37th and last day of racing this year here, fatalities are down significantly from last year’s total of 11 on the Polytrack (six in racing, five in training). With one day left there have been four horses euthanized after suffering catastrophic injuries in afternoon races on the Polytrack. One other was lost after breaking down in morning works. The turf had two fatalities, one in morning works, one in afternoon racing.
Tedesco has been praised in every corner of the facility. In the press box, where media members are asked to pick the top horses in each category, including the horse of the meeting, someone suggested that Tedesco be named “Man of the Meeting.”
“I think Richard has done an excellent job,” said Craig Fravel, president and general manager of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. “He has had his crew working as a team together, and after some adjustments early on, they have really gotten the track in great shape as far as safety and for racing. I couldn’t be happier.”
Asked if Tedesco will be brought back for a second year, Fravel said, “Absolutely. He’s coming back.”
Tedesco symbolizes the work ethic among those on the backstretch in every way. He figured out how to maintain the track the way the successful trainers like Doug O’Neill, who will be the meeting’s top conditioner, and trainer John Sadler solved it for racing.
“Early in the meeting it was inconsistent, but it has gotten much better,” Sadler said. “When you train for synthetic, you train for closers. But there at the beginning, it was favoring speed. My thing about tracks has always been about consistency. The horses and trainers will figure it out if we know it’s one way. When it goes back and forth, we have trouble.”
Trainer Jenine Sahadi, whose warrior mare, Gotta Have Her, won the Grade II, $150,000 Palomar Handicap Monday on turf, believes the track has been very good, especially the last three weeks.
“You have to adapt,” Sahadi said. “That’s what we do as trainers. Frankly, I’m a little peeved about all the crying and whining from the guys who are winning all the races. Maybe we should shut our mouths a little bit and be thankful that everyone seems to be enjoying a good meet. I love Del Mar. I think they do a great job. They put on a great show. The attendance down here has been remarkable. I just don’t see how anyone can knock this place. Things will happen no matter how hard you try, and no matter what you do, horses are going to get hurt. It’s a fact of life. We all try and do the best we can.”
Tedesco said Del Mar’s Polytrack will be even better and safer next year.
“The plan is for me to come here three, four times before we open next year and work it just like it’s a race day,” Tedesco said. “I’ll be at Santa Anita (where he’ll assist in putting in a dirt track), but I’m going to schedule some time here. The big thing we’re going to do is add wax to it sometime in April. That will really help this track and have it ready for next year."