Del Mar Races

I typically post one photo a day or I try at least but today I thought I’d tell a story with pictures instead. I was really trying to practice my panning technique at the Del Mar racetrack but while waiting for the races to start I was taking some snaps; many months later I realized that I had documented the race without intending to do so. So here is the story of how the races go: The first sign of the race is about to begin is they get the horses out of the stable that is adjacent to the track and they go all the way to the end of the track!!

Once all the horses are at end of the track the gates come out, John Deer equipment has a huge presence at the tracks!

The start gates are being setup for the beginning of the race, what I found interesting is how wide the track is but how compressed & close the horses are to each other.

Once all is ready the jockeys get the signal to come to the gates. The way each one of them gets mentally ready for the race, this guys was intense I thought he wasn’t happy with me taking the picture but then again I wasn’t doing anything wrong so its his intensity 🙂

While this jockey appears relaxed and just going through the final moments of preperation

Here, the same guy doing a final adjustment before entering the start gate

And Finally we’re off to the races and my panning was an absolute failure 🙂 Ah well, I hope you enjoyed the previous pics and the behind the scenes story 🙂 The horses were much faster than I ever expected so I had my shutter way too slow for them, I would’ve attempted again at the next race but my guests that day were tired and wanted to head home so we just left shortly after that race.