by Steve Schuelein

In front of 15,440 fans on Wednesday, Midshipman, one of the final horses to carry the forest green and white silks of Stonerside Stable, rallied to nip Coronet of a Baron by a nose in the $250,000 Del Mar Futurity (G1) for two-year-olds, closing-day feature of the 43-day Del Mar meet.

The win was trainer Bob Baffert's eighth in the Futurity, a record for any trainer in the race for two-year-olds, but his first in six years since winning seven straight from 1996 to 2002.

Del Mar closed its meet with declines in handle and attendance.

“The numbers are are a little off due to the economy and not because of the quality of racing,” said Joe Harper, track president and chief executive officer.

Daily average overall handle dropped to $13,001,768, down 7% from 2007, and daily average on-track attendance fell to 16,002, down 4.3%. Daily average on-track handle slipped 11.1% to $2,167,028.

“Saratoga was off and other tracks are also feeling some hard times,” Harper said.

Harper said also that he felt the Polytrack installed in 2007 was much improved in its second year.

“We’ve learned when to water and how much to water,” said Harper, pointing out that the track played fairly and that times were more in line with 2006 after being much slower last year.

Fatalities on Polytrack were up slightly over last year but well below numbers on dirt in recent years. This year eight fatalities were recorded—five in the afternoon and three in the morning—in contrast to six last year.

Harper said a future priority would be widening the turf course in hopes of a Breeders’ Cup bid, probably in 2012.

Rafael Bejarano won his first meet riding title with 45 winners while John Sadler annexed his first meet training title with 31 firsts.

Steve Schuelein is a California-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent