DEL MAR – Over the years, Elias Anaya admits he has lost track of many members of his “family.”
“There are so many in my family,” the 60-year-old Anaya said Thursday at the Del Mar Racetrack. “Maybe thousands. When you do this, you fall in love with them all.”
For 35 years, Anaya has served the sport of racing as a groom. For 22 years, he worked for Bill Shoemaker. For the past 12, he has been part of trainer Doug O’Neill’s team.
And his family …
“My horses,” he says. “Every horse I’m with becomes family. I love horses. I think it’s the same way for all of us. It’s more than a job. The horses become part of you. They know me. I know them. It’s a family.”
Anaya now oversees the care of five horses in O’Neill’s stable. He is the first face they see each morning and usually the last they see at night. He is like the mother hen.
He arrives at the barn each morning at 5. He checks out after 4 p.m. “I get breaks in the middle of the day,” he says. “I have a siesta. But I’m always there for my horses.”
Anaya’s first order of business each morning is to check on the welfare of his horses.
“I look into their eyes,” he said. “I study them. I want to know if they drank enough water, ate their dinner. If I don’t like something I see, I tell the foreman or the assistant trainer. The groom is the foundation.”
Anaya goes horse to horse. He cleans their stalls. Prepares them for the exercise rider. After their daily exercise, his horses return to Anaya, who bathes and grooms them, prepares their breakfast and then “lets them loose for an hour to be themselves.”
“From 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. it’s pretty nonstop,” said Anaya. “Even when it is slower in the afternoon, you keep an eye on them all the time. When they rest, you rest. Then you feed them dinner.”
Race days, however, are different.
“You spend more time with a horse on a race day,” he said. “They know it’s not another day. Every horse has its own personality. That’s a great part of it. As a groom, you spend more time with each horse learning about the personality. You love them all. But you approach each horse very differently.”
Anaya admits there is a favorite member of his family — 2016 Kentucky Derby champion Nyquist.
“He was a winner and a champion,” said Anaya. “But he was also friendly and fun. He’d be very excited to see me in the morning. And he was always looking around to see what was happening. He had happiness.”
Although the days are long, Anaya sees no change in his lifestyle.
“Grooms stay around horses,” he said. “Even when they are no longer grooms, they love horses.”
Friday feature
Mrs. Astor, a 5-year-old mare who won the Grade III Red Carpet Stakes at Del Mar last fall, is the 5-2 morning-line favorite to win the$100,000 CTT and TOC Stakes — a 1 3/8-mile marathon for older fillies and mares.
Mrs. Astor (Umberto Rispoli) has won five of her last seven starts. Trainer Phil D’Amato will have three of the 11 horses in the field — Starry Heavens, Kentucky Gal and Sun of Hill.
The first post for Friday’s card has been advanced an hour to 3 p.m.
Notable
Baeza, the third-place finisher behind Sovereignty and Journalism in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, will not be racing in the Pacific Classic even though he is stabled at Del Mar. Trainer John Shirreffs is pointing him toward the Grade I Pennsylvania Derby.
• Rispoli scored just his sixth win of the meeting aboard Roselee May ($16.60) in Thursday’s feature — 1 3/8-mile allowance on the turf for older Cal-bred fillies and mares. The win was the second of the day for trainer Michael McCarthy.
• Jockey Armando Ayuso has been suspended for three days (Aug. 28-30) for crossing without sufficient clearance aboard Devil Among Us in Sunday’s eighth race.