Horse racing: Trainer Mark Glatt mourns tragic loss as he seeks major victory

ARCADIA — She was there for almost every step of his rise in thoroughbred racing, from back when she was a waitress in the box seats and he was a fledgling trainer at a small track in Washington state, through recent years when she was a constant presence in winner’s circles celebrating his victories on the top-class circuit in California.

She was his wife for the past 25 years, mother of their three children. She was a racing partner and a life partner.

Dena Glatt was so much a part of everything he did, Mark Glatt has nowhere to go to escape grief these days, not at home in Monrovia and not at work at Santa Anita.

Dena died Feb. 12. She was 57.

“Right now it’s a little hard to enjoy anything,” Mark, who’s 53, said Monday morning. “You know, we (his stable) just had a great weekend (he saddled five horses and came away with three wins and two 1-2 finishes). But with her on my mind, I certainly didn’t enjoy it like I would have.”

The sudden loss of Dena Glatt, who died from cardiac arrest after two weeks in the hospital in Arcadia, is taking the pleasure out of Mark Glatt’s pursuit of a career-making triumph.

Glatt is getting ready to run an undefeated 3-year-old with the bitterly ironic name So Happy in the San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday. A victory in the Grade II race would earn So Happy enough qualifying points to all but clinch a spot in the May 2 Kentucky Derby. A good second- or third-place finish could keep him in line for the April 4 Santa Anita Derby and another shot at the needed Kentucky Derby points.

Speaking Monday morning in his Santa Anita barn office, Glatt was articulate as always in proclaiming So Happy ready for the 1 1/16-mile San Felipe, in which the colt will face Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s high-rated Brant as well as doubts about the ability of a son of champion sprinter Runhappy to stretch out after improving to 2 for 2 by winning the 7-furlong San Vicente Stakes.

“I think we’ve done what we can do (in training), and he’s going to take us where he takes us,” Glatt said of So Happy.

Wherever Mark Glatt is taken, he’ll go without Dena Glatt for the first time in forever.

Mark, son of Pacific Northwest trainer Ron Glatt, met the former Dena Carey at Emerald Downs in Auburn, Washington, in 1996. He was in his second year as an independent trainer and she was paying for school with a part-time job as a waitress in his area of the box seats.

They dated for five years before marrying, and moved first to Northern California and then Southern California. Mark has become one of the West Coast’s top trainers, leading in wins as recently as the 2024 Del Mar fall meet and the 2024-25 Santa Anita Classic Meet and winning big stakes with horses like Dr. Schivel, Dr. Venkman, Collusion Illusion and Sharp Samurai. Dena learned court reporting and applied the skill to helping hearing-impaired students at Cal Poly Pomona by turning classroom talk into text.

They raised three children. Ryan is the agent for jockey Abel Lezcano. Luke and Madison are students.

“When you train racehorses, it becomes a way of life. It’s pretty time-demanding,” Glatt said. “Not only did she accept it, she embraced it.”

Together, Mark and Dena owned horses under a partnership called Seahawk Racing.

The last victory they celebrated together was the Seattle Seahawks’ Super Bowl win Feb. 8.

“She was doing OK at that time,” said Glatt, wearing a Seahawks cap. “I watched the Super Bowl with her in the hospital.”

Glatt, a member of the Thoroughbred Owners of California board of directors, said he feels the support of the racing community, which is as tight-knit as it is competitive. But the racetrack is no sanctuary from sorrow these days.

“You have to try and keep yourself busy. But there are moments when you don’t feel like being here,” he said. “For now, it’s not the same. She was here almost every race day. She was in probably 90% of my win pictures. So it’s a void.”

Dena is in the winner’s-circle photo from after So Happy and jockey Mike Smith won the San Vicente Stakes on Jan. 10. A victory Saturday would be a reminder of that good time. And that void.

“Everybody that’s come up to me and talked to me, that’s been through similar experiences, says it will get easy and it will get better with good old-fashioned time,” Glatt said this week. “I wouldn’t wish this feeling on my worst enemy. But we (he and the children) have a lot of good people in our life, and we have a tremendous amount of support.

“We’ll be happy again.”

Follow horse racing correspondent Kevin Modesti at X.com/KevinModesti