DEL MAR -- Come Opening Day, thoroughbred racing fans will have one more reason to head down to the track in Del Mar -- a lively and iconic new mural on the east wall of the entrance to the Turf Club.
Painted by renowned racing artist Pierre Bellocq, better known as PEB, the 30-foot-by-6-foot brightly colored mural was installed Friday morning.
It portrays more then 100 racetrack personalities and six famous horses from the Del Mar racetrack's illustrious 70-year history, all done with Bellocq's classic wit and whimsy.
"I was born a caricaturist," the artist said Friday. "I was just gifted at making caricatures and from there, I did cartoons and paintings." Bellocq's work has been featured in the Daily Racing Form for over 50 years and his murals grace the clubhouses at Churchill Downs and Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.
Thanks to Bellocq's mastery of caricature, many of the likenesses in the Del Mar mural -- such as those of Ava Gardner, Bing Crosby, WC Fields, Bob Hope, and Jimmy Durante -- are easily recognizable.
Others familiar with memorable events in Del Mar racing history will be able to pick out George Woolf on Seabiscuit nosing out Ligaroti in 1938 at the far left of the mural, or a horse called Dare To Go lounging in a beach chair smoking a cigar at the far right. In 1996, Dare To Go beat out Cigar in the $1 million Pacific Classic in a stunning upset.
Joe Harper, president and general manager of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, is also portrayed in the center of Bellocq's painting, as is his mother Cecila deMille Harper.
"I like it," Joe Harper said of his own likeness. "I'm a lot younger there than I am now."
A longtime friend of the artist, Harper said he commissioned the painting for the racetrack.
"I have known his (Bellocq's) work for so long," Harper said. "I saw his painting in Gallagher's (the legendary New York steakhouse), with all the Broadway celebrities and New Yorkers and I thought it would be great to have something like that here."
Mac McBride, director of media for the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, said the response to the painting has been phenomenal.
"The reactions are just over the moon. People are just knocked out by it," McBride said. "It's the most colorful thing. It was something we just could not have done without."
The canvas was shipped in pieces to Del Mar from Bellocq's home in Princeton, N.J., and then reassembled, stretched, backed and mounted before being hung in the entryway to the Turf Club.
On Friday morning, Bellocq was on hand to see his painting in its new permanent location for the first time and to apply a few final touches. He even changed the hair color of Rex Ellsworth, whose likeness is in front of the painting, near well-known owner and trainer Bob Baffert and actor Jack Klugman.
Apparently, Bellocq worked from a black-and-white photo and wasn't aware that Ellsworth's hair was more brown than blonde.
"I tried to make everything authentic," added Bellocq "down to the tickets -- they don't look like that now -- to the racing program from the 1950s."
