The emotional impact of certain horse races can be felt instantly.

A good example of this would be Zenyatta's win in the 2009 Breeders' Cup Classic when her stretch run unleashed a roar not heard at Santa Anita in decades. Another case in point would be California Chrome taking the Kentucky Derby in 2014, followed by American Pharoah ending the Triple Crown drought in 2015. All three races generated instant history, and the trio of Thoroughbreds were all loved before and after those indelible moments of their respective careers.

But a race's emotional impact could be felt later on for unexpected reasons. Those reasons vary, but people who were part of the moment realize the significance of the occasion after it happened.

Such a race happened on September 4, 1967.

Before his unprecedented third straight victory in the Hollywood Gold Cup, Native Diver found himself mired in an unfamiliar position. In his last two races, he had lost by a combined thirty-nine lengths.

While the Diver had lost two straight races before, he had not experienced back-to-back defeats of this nature. But that type of form was not to last long. Native Diver came back with a second and then led at every point of call to take the 1967 Hollywood Gold Cup in what was the biggest race of his legendary career.

That raised his record number of stakes victories at the Track of the Lakes and Flowers to ten, a number no horse ever surpassed. Back in the winners' circle after his crowning achievement, Native Diver would head down to San Diego County later that summer to tackle a race that had escaped him once before.

Though Native Diver experienced his greatest stakes success at Hollywood Park, he did pretty well at Del Mar, too. He won three straight San Diego Handicaps between 1964 and 1966 (a record he still owns in 2023). he tried the Del Mar Handicap in 1963, but left the track with a seventh place. Four years later, the Diver returned to the Del Mar Handicap for another try at victory in the race.

Combining his recent third straight Hollywood Gold Cup win with the fact he was making his first start by the beach in two years, Native Diver returning to Del Mar was an event. Without question the Cal-bred of the 1960s, the son of Imbros easily commanded the respect from the Del Mar crowd on Labor Day. To them, the race went through the gelding as he was made the 1-2 favorite in his eighty-first start. No one else in the field would be lower than 7-1 when the running commenced.

For the forty-third time, jockey Jerry Lambert was in the irons for Native Diver. The jockey who knew the Diver best, he had enjoyed an abundance of victories with the Buster Millerick trainee. Destined to be one of Thoroughbred racing's greatest duos, Native Diver and Lambert headed to the front when the gates opened.

The Del Mar Handicap became a classic Native Diver performance. He loved to lead, and he did just that early on. The seven rivals facing him - Acknowledge, Balsamo II, Biggs, Desert Trial, Sharp Decline, Single Needle and Wingover - trailed. That is all they would do on that day, for Native Diver built upon his grandest moment at Hollywood Park a few weeks earlier.

Leading at every point of call, Native Diver and Lambert put together splits of :21 4/5, :45 2/5, 1:09 2/5 and 1:34 2/5 before winning handily by three and one-half lengths. With the victory came an added bonus. After Hollywood Park's fans saw the Diver make history in July, the Del Mar patrons watched him make history by equaling the track record in a time of 1:46 3/5. That gave Native Diver his fourth stakes win at Del Mar, increased his overall collection of stakes victories to thirty-four, and the thirty-seventh win of his career. The moment served as a wonderful follow up to what he had accomplished at Hollywood Park. But it would not take long before the significance of the day reached an entirely different level.

Less than two weeks after the Del Mar Handicap, Native Diver suddenly came down with colic while on the way to race at Bay Meadows. Taken to UC Davis where doctors did their best to save him, Native Diver passed due to colic just nine days after the Del Mar Handicap. Shock and sorrow immediately followed. Native Diver raced to the age of eight, still winning races and setting or equaling various records. But just like that, he had passed.

For those who saw Native Diver at Del Mar, the occasion took on an even greater meaning. Everyone who attended that day were now part of history, for they watched the last race of one of California's legends.

And for that reason, the 1967 Del Mar Handicap stands as the end of an era.