Today would have been Del Mar opening day number 69 for 95-year-old Tom Whayne
For Tom Whayne, opening day of the Del Mar summer season was special.
So special, in fact, that he was in attendance on track for the opening festivities 68 years in a row – from 1951-2019.
Whayne passed away June 27 of kidney failure, four months after moving from his longtime residence in Leucadia to an assisted living home in Shadow Ridge. He was 95.
Born September 2, 1924 in San Bernardino, Whayne served in World War II as a naval officer on a mine sweeper. After the war he embarked on an academic career highlighted by a Masters in education at UCLA that in turn led to a long tenure teaching drama at Oakland Tech High School in Oakland. His students included members of the Pointer Sisters singing family, actor Ted Lange (Love Boat) and baseball Hall of Famer Ricky Henderson.
With school out in the summer, Whayne and his wife Phyllis were free to come to Del Mar and start the string of opening days. “We’d always be there for opening day, but we never saw a (closing day) Futurity because we had to go back for meetings before the start of school,” Whayne said in a 2015 interview.
One summer, Whayne got a job working in the backstretch cafeteria: “Not because I couldn’t have gotten something on the front, but because I wanted to see what it was like back there as research for a novel. I wrote it and came close to getting it published, but never did.”
Moving to the area after retiring from teaching, in 1990 Whayne worked as host/analyst for the weekly racing TV show “Del Mar Turf Weekly” which ran for three seasons. He also co-produced the first three California Cup presentations from Santa Anita with Ned Augustenborg and the two partnered on racing and Del Mar-related features for CNN and ESPN.
“Tom was very proud of his longevity at Del Mar,” Augustenborg said. “In the year preceding his death, Tom did not let a day go by without reminding everyone concerned that he would be at Del Mar at least one more time.”
Whayne was preceded in death by his wife, Ethyl, and their daughter Gloria.
Del Mar Thoroughbred Club Press Release
Photo: Tom Whayne celebrated his 91st birthday on Wednesday, September 2, 2015, at Del Mar! Credit: Del Mar Thoroughbred Club
