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Horses, humans back on track at San Luis Rey Training Center

The San Luis Rey Training Center in Bonsall is once again looking like, well, a training center.

Thoroughbreds with exercise riders aboard head to the racetrack for morning workouts. Trainers monitor their runners as they stride around the one-mile oval while grooms scurry around the barns, mucking stalls, bathing and feeding the horses in their care.

"It's back to normal," said trainer Michele Dollase. "It's excellent to be back."

The more than 400 horses displaced by the Dec. 7 Lilac fire, which tore through a portion of the training center, destroyed eight barns and claimed 46 equine lives, have been steadily returning to San Luis Rey from Del Mar during the past two weeks.

Del Mar, which conducts live racing meets in the summer and fall, was thrust into the role of a training center after the fire, accommodating the horses and the people that care for them.

"Del Mar was fantastic," said Linda Thrash, assistant trainer for the Phil D'Amato barn. "They were very welcoming, very accommodating. The staff there was very helpful and the surface was great to train on and the stable area was very nice."

As nice as it was at Del Mar, Thrash said it was great to return to San Luis Rey, where there is a feeling of a new beginning.

"We still went on and trained our horses every day (at Del Mar) and we entered races and ran and won, but we knew that was a temporary situation and that it was going to come to an end, so we kind of maybe, mentally, were in a holding pattern," said Thrash. "So now this is the release. We get back here and get to go on and move forward."

While the horses were at Del Mar, San Luis Rey general manager Kevin Habell and officials with The Stronach Group, which owns the training facility, worked to determine what kind of replacement barns could be built in timely fashion. The racehorses had to be out of the Del Mar stable area by mid-April because the facility is hosting the National Horse Show.

The Stronach Group decided to install two ClearSpan barns – two giant, tent-like structures – that combined can house 248 horses. The Stronach Group owns and operates racetracks across the country and uses ClearSpan barns at its Laurel Park racetrack in Maryland and at Gulfstream Park in Florida.

"The fastest way to get the horses and the trainers back in action here was to get these structures," said Habell, who refers to the two new barns as pavilion one and pavilion two. "Horsemen, we don't like change – we like traditional – but all the trainers I've brought by like them."

The six barns that weren't damaged by the fire were refurbished by Habell's team.

"The existing barns were cleaned, pressure-washed, repainted and had new metal roofs put on," said Habell.

"Seeing it the way it looks now is unbelievable," said Stephanie Murray, assistant to two-time Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Doug O'Neill. "It's a brand new place. They painted all the stalls. They didn't miss anything. We couldn't be happier."

Murray said O'Neill, who won the 2012 Kentucky Derby with I'll Have Another and the 2016 Run For The Roses with Nyquist, comes to San Luis Rey from his base at Santa Anita (Arcadia) once or twice a week.

"He loves it here," said Murray of O'Neill. "Last year he made the decision to keep horses here year round. We'll have anywhere between 40 and 50 here. Right now we have 42."

In the days following the fire, some worried if The Stronach Group would be willing to spend the money it would take to fix and reopen San Luis Rey.

"We were all a little worried about what if they didn't rebuild," said Heather Contreras, an exercise rider for the O'Neill barn and a longtime resident of Bonsall. "All of us that live right here would have to relocate. We're very happy that they did decide to rebuild and that we could all come back and train here."

"It feels awesome," said Dollase of returning to San Luis Rey. "Everyday I walk out with a big smile on my face."

"It's like a promise fulfilled," said Thrash.

Murray said San Luis Rey is a special facility.

"I've trained at tracks all across America and this is hands-down the best place to have horses at," said Murray. "You can bring young horses here and get them ready, you can bring horses off layups and get them ready, and you can run older horses out of here and win races. It's really hard to find a training center where you can do all of those things.

This place is kind of like a hidden secret."

Habell called seeing horses back in action at the training center "freaking refreshing."

"I couldn't be prouder of my crew," said Habell. "We pulled the impossible off. We kept going, kept going and kept going, and then when the first horses came back my crew just lit up. When we saw the horses it was like, 'it's true – we're back.'"

 

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