The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club has added three new members to its board of directors and announced that Betty L. Mabee, a board member since 2002, will now serve in the role of director emeritus.

Board Chairman Robert Strauss announced that David Batchelder, Jon Kelly, and Marie Moretti will join Del Mar’s leadership body. The three new additions will expand Del Mar’s board to 12 members.

“We are delighted to have three people of this caliber join the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and we are certainly a better group for it,” said Strauss, a board member since 1988. “Our new members bring intelligence, experience, and a love of racing with them and their fresh energy will provide a powerful vitality for us all.”

Mabee is the wife of the late John Mabee, one of the founding members of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club.

“Betty Mabee was at her husband’s side from the beginning and is part of the very soul of Del Mar Thoroughbred Club,” said Strauss, the board’s leader since 2002. “We will carry her wisdom forward on this board and we are both indebted and honored that she was one of her seminal forces.”

Batchelder, a San Diego resident, is the founder and principal of Relational Investors, a $7-billion investment fund specializing in strategic block investments. Kelly and his wife, Sarah, are prominent Thoroughbred owners and breeders who co-owned Borrego, the winner of the 2005 Pacific Classic Stakes (G1) and Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1).

Moretti recently finished an eight-year term as a commissioner of the California Horse Racing Board. She has served five California governors during her career in public service.

The three new members will join board members J. Terrance Lanni, Marty Wygod, Rollin Baugh, Tom Stickle, Warner Lusardi, Joe Harper, and James Buell, V.M.D.