DEL MAR, Calif.— Timing is everything, especially in horse racing. They time the races, they time the morning workouts and, in some places, they even time the load into the gate.
Clocking the morning workouts at Del Mar is the job of a half a dozen people who arrive at Del Mar at the crack of dawn, seven days a week for the duration of the eight week meet. John Malone is the head clocker at Del Mar.
“The track opens at 4:30,” Malone says. “I have a crew of six, one is in his own room, three are in with me, and one is across the way.”
Across the way is at the gap on the backstretch, where the horses enter the racetrack. The room where John clocks the horses is the stewards’ booth on the sixth floor of the grandstand, just below where Trevor Denman resides on race day. It provides a perfect birds-eye view of the entire racetrack. Malone says most of the people working for him had previous jobs in the racing industry.
“In the past they were people who trained horses and that type of thing,” Malone says. “Most start out working on the tab which is all of the computer work and answering the phone.”
The process of clocking a horse’s morning workout begins with a phone call from the trainer.
“They’re supposed to call up and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to work so and so’ or they send me a text. It’s a lot easier now with this (the cellphone) than it used to be.”
Malone’s first year as a clocker was 1991. While things have changed over the years, one thing has remained constant. Identifying the horses out on the track. Unlike during the races, the horses on the track don’t have numbers on their saddle cloths or brightly dressed riders on their backs.
“We have a database under The Jockey Club and we look up all of the markings on the horses, “Malone says. “In theory, as horses come through the lane, we’re supposed to match them up with the markings on the horse.”
Malone remembers working with one particular colleague who was exceptionally good at the job.
“His name was Chuck,” John remembers. “He knew every horse just by seeing them. He had a great memory. We didn’t even need a person at the gap, he would just say ‘so and so’ was going to work, just by seeing the horse.”
On any given weekday there can be up to 100 horses working in the morning at Del Mar, sometimes over 200 horses on the weekends. John and his crew clock every one of them. It has its perks. Malone has had a front row seat to some of the greats of the game.
“American Pharoah, all of the good ones from the past 30 years,” he notes.
The public is invited to enjoy the morning workouts daily. Admission is free but parking is $10.
DMTC Press Release
Photo: Racing at Del Mar (Benoit)
