Accustomed to the highly-regimented life of the racetrack, hundreds of thoroughbreds frantically galloped together Thursday trying to escape the blazing Lilac wildfire.

Terrified, the speedsters stampeded through Bonsall’s San Luis Rey Downs horse-training facility, whinnying, rolling their eyes and thundering through thick smoke as the fire quickly consumed the barns where they had spent the morning serenely munching hay.

The fire arrived at the sprawling 500-stall complex on Camino Del Rey about one mile east of Highway 76 a bit before 2 p.m., causing ever-more-frantic public address system calls to move the horses to the facility’s one-mile track.

At first, the barn evacuation was orderly, with trainers doing all they could to coax the glossy and muscular bunch up a slight rise that connected the stables to the track.


But the wind picked up suddenly, causing embers to surge westward onto barn roofs, engulfing the whole area in thick smoke, whinnies escaping through the gloom interspersed with frantic calls of “behind you” from trainers trying to keep their friends and colleagues from ending up underneath unpredictable hooves.

Now and then, small herds of horses would gallop from the smoke-shrouded barn bloc, sometimes bolting up to the main track and comparative safety, sometimes opting to keep circling their fiery homes, a maelstrom of confused and panicked horseflesh with no clear compass.

Trainer Linda Thrash of Bonsall was in the middle of that confusion, trying to lead the 41 horses that the company she works for stables in barn L at the Downs to safety.


“We tried to keep up with it, stomping on embers and using the hose, but it just started coming so fast that we just couldn’t stay with it,” Thrash said. “Eventually, we just had to turn them loose. There was not time to do anything else.”

Barns, she noted, tend to be full of flammable material that makes keeping up with a wind-driven blaze more difficult.

1 / 45 A San Diego Fire and Rescue firefighters gestures while talking to another firefighter as they protect a home from the Lilac Fire in Bonsall. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 2 / 45 The Lilac Fire burns near homes in Bonsall on Thursday. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 3 / 45 San Diego Fire and Rescue firefighters Corey Tang, with hose, Steven Benitez, and Capt. Jack Middleton, left, stand in the side yard of a home as they protect it from the Lilac Fire in Bonsall. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 4 / 45 Fire personnel drive along West Lilac Road near Bonsall as the Lilac Fire burns. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 5 / 45 Fire personnel drive along West Lilac Road near Bonsall as the Lilac Fire burns. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 6 / 45 Fire personnel drive along West Lilac Road near Bonsall as the Lilac Fire burns. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 7 / 45 Horse trailers are lined up along Camino Del Rey to evacuate horses from the San Luis Rey Training Center near Bonsall as the Lilac Fire burns. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 8 / 45 Flames burn behind a large tree decorated with Christmas lights at the River Village shopping center at Highway 76 and South Mission Road as the Lilac Fire burns through Bonsall. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 9 / 45 A helicopter drops water on flames in the San Luis Rey riverbed in Bonsall. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 10 / 45 Barbara Carlson, of Fallbrook, talks to a pair of CHP officers about getting to her son’s home in Bonsall to save valuables there as the Lilac Fire approached. Thursday was Carlson’s 65th birthday. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 11 / 45 Cal Fire firefighter Reed Rasmussen hoses flames next to Bonsall High School as the Lilac Fire burns through Bonsall. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 12 / 45 A man photographs huge flames as vegetation burns in the San Luis Rey riverbed at Highway 76 and South Mission Road as the Lilac Fire burns through Bonsall. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 13 / 45 Cal Fire firefighter Cole Bellatti hoses a hillside on fire behind stores in the River Village shopping center at Highway 76 and South Mission Road as the Lilac Fire burns through Bonsall. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 14 / 45 A firefighting helicopter makes a water drop along Old River Road while battling the Lilac Fire. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 15 / 45 Firefighters battle the Lilac Fire along West Lilac Road. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 16 / 45 Firefighters battle the Lilac Fire along West Lilac Road. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 17 / 45 Firefighters battle the Lilac Fire along West Lilac Road. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 18 / 45 Firefighters battle the Lilac Fire along West Lilac Road. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 19 / 45 Trees and brush are on fire along West Lilac Road. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 20 / 45 Trees and brush are on fire along West Lilac Road. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 21 / 45 Trees and brush are on fire along West Lilac Road. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 22 / 45 Trees and brush are on fire along West Lilac Road. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 23 / 45 Firefighters battle the Lilac Fire along West Lilac Road. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 24 / 45 Home burn as a firefighter pulls hose to keep flames from advancing to adjacent homes while battling the Lilac fire at Rancho Monserate Country Club on December 7, 2017. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 45 Home on West Lilac Road fully engulfed in fire. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 26 / 45 A CalFire tanker drops retardant on a portion of the Lilac Fire near Old Highway 395. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 27 / 45 A water-dropping helicopter drops its load onto burning homes battling the Lilac fire at Rancho Monserate Country Club. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 45 Two Sheriffs Deputies stand on the 6900 block of very smokey W. Lilac Road. | (Charlie Neuman / Charlie Neuman) 29 / 45 A home on West Lilac Road burns in the wind-fanned Lilac fire in the Bonsall area. The fast moving fire has charred more than 1,000 acres. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times) 30 / 45 A plane drops fire retardant near a home to stop the wind driven Liberty Fire near Los Alamos Road. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 45 Homes burn as an firefighters pull hose to keep flames from advancing to adjacent homes while battling the Lilac fire at Rancho Monserate Country Club on December 7, 2017. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 45 Greenhouses burn along the 6900 block of W. Lilac Road. (Charlie Neuman / Charlie Neuman) 33 / 45 December 7, 2017_Fallbrook, California_USA_| Homeowner Susie Lynn uses a garden hose to put out hot spots near her and her husband Mike’s property on the 6900 block of W. Lilac Road. (Charlie Neuman / Charlie Neuman) 34 / 45 A motorcyclist heads east on W. Liliac Road past an out building that burned. (Charlie Neuman / Charlie Neuman) 35 / 45 Workers work to put out a smoldering fire along West Lilac Road. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 36 / 45 Brush burns along West Lilac Road (Charlie Neuman / Charlie Neuman) 37 / 45 Firefighters battle a fire ball as many homes are burning in the Lilac fire at Rancho Monserate Country Club on December 7, 2017. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 38 / 45 A Vista firefighter cuts a hole in a fence at a home on West Lilac Road. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 39 / 45 Traffic is backed up on I-15 where the fire began on the west side of the freeway in this view looking north toward Highway 76 in the distance. (Charlie Neuman / Charlie Neuman) 40 / 45 Firefighting aircraft being used to battle the Lilac Fire fill up with fire retardant at the Ramona Air Attack Base in Ramona on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017. fight (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 41 / 45 A home in the 6600 block of West Lilac Road is full engulfed in flames. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 42 / 45 Spectators watch from Old Highway 395 as smoke rises from the Lilac Fire. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 43 / 45 Homeowner Mike Lynn uses a garden hose to put out hot spots near greenhouses next door to he and his wife Susie’s property on the 6900 block of W. Lilac Road. (Charlie Neuman / Charlie Neuman) 44 / 45 Cal Fire deputy chief Dave Nissen speaks about the Lilac Fire during a press conference Thursday at the San Diego County Emergency Operation Center in San Diego, California. (Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune) 45 / 45 Horses evacuated from the Lilac Fire are being stabled at the Del Mar race track. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

As dozens, then hundreds of horses were turned out of their stalls, trainers and other personnel tried frantically to get them under control. Eventually, most calmed down enough to be loaded onto trailers destined for the stables at Del Mar Fairgrounds. But there was a time there in the middle of the action where it seemed like many of the horses would never stop moving long enough to be coaxed in the right direction.


With visibility very low, and thousand-pound animals moving in often-random directions, trampling was a very real possibility. But that did not appear to have happened Thursday afternoon. A Downs employee who declined to give his name said he was unaware of any cases where people were run down.

The horses were not so lucky.

Trainer Brian Kozak said he saw several had collapsed on the track and more died in the barns.

“There’s a lot of dead horses,” he said. “A lot of them just didn’t get out of their stalls and got asphyxiated.”


No official casualty count was available Thursday evening though it did seem judging by the sheer numbers of four-hooved fire victims moving throughout the area, that the quick work of skillful horse experts managed to save the lives of hundreds. (By Friday, Madeline Auerbach, a prominent horse owner and member of the California Horse Racing Board, said her group was told at least 35 horses died in the blaze.)

The biggest challenge, Thrash added, was not necessarily flames or smoke, but the nature of the horses themselves.

“The problem is, to the horses, their barn is home. Even though you shoo ‘em out, they want to go back,” Thrash said.

San Luis Rey Downs is no home for hobby horses.


Covering 205 acres, horses have access to an equine pool, arena, paddock and other amenities. Many trainers use San Luis Rey as a full-time home for their horses and then van them to Del Mar, Santa Anita and Los Alamitos for races.

San Luis Rey Downs has been home to some of the best thoroughbreds in America, with four horses who had early training at the facility going on to win the Kentucky Derby: Sunday Silence, Ferdinand, Gato del Sol and Fusaichi Pegasus. Cigar, who at the time of his retirement was North American racing’s leading money winner, was trained early in his career at San Luis Rey Downs. The facility was the regular home to Azeri during her career, which included Horse of the Year honors for 2002.

According to a 2013 story in the Daily Racing Form, San Luis Rey Downs was built in the late 1960s to be a parimutuel racing facility by C. Arnholt Smith and John Alessio, who intended to “wrest the choice summer racing dates away from the track at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.”

It never worked out for them, and the facility went through multiple ownership changes through the years before it was purchased by the Stronach Group, which also owns Santa Anita, among other racetracks.


San Luis Rey Downs was bolstered by $5 million worth of improvements in 2013.

(SHAFFER GRUB / Union-Tribune)


Lilac Fire × On Now Video: Burned trainer Herrick, horse travel fire-recovery road together On Now Firefighters go offensive on Lilac fire, holding at 4,100 acres On Now Fire claims dozens of retirees' homes in mobile home community On Now Sudden firestorm forces stampede at Bonsall horse training center On Now Video: Lilac Fires: Cal Fire press conference 4:50 On Now Gov. Brown declares state of emergency 1:48 On Now Video: Lilac fire: Rancho Monserate Country Club 0:54 On Now Video: Lilac Fire: Evacuation areas 2:11 On Now Lilac fire prompts evacuations 3:11 On Now Horse evacuated at the Del Mar Fairgrounds 0:59

paul.sisson@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1850


Twitter: @paulsisson

UPDATES:

4:20 p.m. Friday: This article was updated to reflect an updated casualty count for horses.