Murray Johnson has a complete meltdown after the Pacific Classic

http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports...s21dmside.html

DEL MAR – Did some late-night grading of Del Mar's main track set up the 16th Pacific Classic for a speedy Lava Man to cruise to his historic victory?

That's the thinking of trainer Murray Johnson, whose 7-year-old gelding, Perfect Drift, only managed to close to a fourth-place finish after getting second in the race two years in a row. Perfect Drift is heading back to Kentucky after his ninth straight loss, and the usually cool-headed Murray was steaming and crying foul.


“I got real disappointed last night when I came back and saw a grader on the racetrack at around 9 o'clock,� Johnson said. “That tells me the whole story. Why would you grade a racetrack the night before a Grade I race? And they're trying to stop breakdowns, and they take dirt off the track. Well, guess who that helps?

“They pushed dirt off the rail, which makes the track harder and makes the track more conducive to a speed horse (like Lava Man) going a mile and a quarter and more conducive to breaking a horse down.�

Joe Harper, CEO and president of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, said it's not unusual for a grader to be on the track late at night.

“That's basically the way we do it every night to level it off,� Harper said.

Del Mar trackman Steve Wood said much the same.

“I don't know any track in the country that doesn't grade their track before the next day's races,� Wood said. “Here at Del Mar, this track is made on a hill. The material slides toward the rail, and if we don't grade it, it slides to the rail and is uneven.�

Johnson wasn't buying it. “(Lava Man is) a good horse, but when you get things catered toward you,� Johnson said. “Polytrack (artificial surface) will be good for this industry. It will take the trackman out of the equation.

“There are a lot of people who manipulate things in this game. It's like the drugs and what they treat the horses with. They all think they've got an edge. We know how (Lava Man) does back East when he travels. (Lava Man hasn't won outside California.) I'd love to know his bicarb (bicarbonate) level, too. I'll guarantee it's in the 30s. Which means he's . . . it's not a legitimate thing. I'm not bitching because I lost. I'm just telling you what I saw.�

Winning trainer Doug O'Neill wasn't buying the criticism.

“We won, so obviously the track seemed great to us,� O'Neill said. “But I didn't see any signs of them doing anything funny with the track. And even if they sped it up, or slowed it down, we all had to run over it. What was the final time, 2 minutes and change (2:01.62, the slowest in Pacific Classic history), so it wasn't overly quick. Being run at 2:01, that gave everyone the opportunity. It set it up for a closer. I think the equal weights evened things out a little bit.�

Jockey Garrett Gomez, who rode long-shot runner-up Good Reward, said the track seems softer than earlier in the year.

“I was here the second week of the meet, and it seemed harder then,� said Gomez, who has been riding at Saratoga. “Today it seemed to have a little bounce to it, wasn't as jarring for the horse.�

It was a tough week for Johnson, the affable Australian who brought Perfect Drift to Del Mar three straight years for two seconds and now a fourth. Johnson's father, Geoffrey, suffered what could have been sudden cardiac death, but fellow trainer Joe Herrick and Del Mar Fairgrounds medical staff saved his life.

“Joe administered CPR and took him from no pulse to a pulse and got him breathing again, saved his life,� Johnson said, adding that his father will remain in a local hospital for a week or so before going back to Louisville, Ky., and eventually returning to Australia.

Wow!