Zenyatta

First published on August 11, 2009

Even without the presence of the brilliant Zenyatta, sun-drenched Del Mar would be a fairly special place. Located in an upmarket seaside village on the Pacific coast just north of San Diego, Del Mar is the holiday home of the southern Californian racing circuit.

In a sense it is California’s answer to Saratoga in upstate New York: the tracks run simultaneously, each annually hosting a prestige-packed meeting in late July and August, the mention of their names enough to elicit a beatific smile from American racing enthusiasts. But if Del Mar fulfils the same function in the west as Saratoga in the east, they are chalk and cheese in certain respects: Californian yin to New York yang. Where Saratoga is all about history and tradition in its unquestioned role as sacred keeper of American racing’s flame, Del Mar is the arriviste, famously laidback and easygoing. Californian, in other words.