Horse Racing: Del Mar Season Opens
For the 71st year, crowds are gathering at “Where the Surf Meets the Turf.” Del Mar Racetrack opens its door for racing enthusiasts as the club begins its 37 day racing season on 21st of July. Almost 45,000 fans attended the opening day festivities last year, and even with the decline in interest recently, Del Mar expects at least 40,000 to attend the opening day event.
Opening day traditionally holds the “One and Only Truly Fabulous Hats Contest.” Rivalling the hats of Ascot but more fun and light-hearted it should be said, on opening day the ladies compete for the most glamorous, most outrageous and the one with the best fresh flowers awards. This is, however, California; it wouldn’t be wise to count out the gents from the competition.
Every summer, Del Mar hosts a string of performers and this year will be no exception. More noteworthy of the appearance expected are the B-52’s, Weezer and ZZ Top. It’s a colourful spectacle and horses are only part of the package.
Thought up last year by someone truly praise-worthy, and being held again this year would be the most interesting race of Del Mar, in fact of any race track in any country: the race for the title of Miss Cougar, Del Mar. Gentlemen, place your bets and if by a strange coincidence you are one of the few people who is not interested in the Miss Cougar title race for Del Mar, then don’t despair. The grade III race, Cougar II Handicap, at least should find your fancy, and the fact that the winner of the Miss Cougar Del Mar title would be presenting the trophy, rest assured that the rest of us won’t lose interest either.
Then there is the Bear and Reggae Fest, a festival dedicated to, yes, bears and Reggae music. Over 60 different bears would be on offer to Reggae tunes played throughout the day. Reggae Legend Jimmy Cliff is also making an appearance.
Del Mar won’t be all flash and glamour; it is a racing meet after all, and the first day opens with $100,000 Oceanside Stakes for 3-year-olds. Making his stakes debut on Wednesday would be John Sadler’s undefeated Twirling Candy, son of Candy Ride. The favourite would race in a field of 10 for his first stakes win. Among his competition most notably would be Macias. Macias, trained by hall of famer Bob Baffert, still hasn’t won a graded stakes race but among the opening Oceanside stakes field, Macias has the highest earnings. Also trained by John Sadler, running in Oceanside would be Domonation.
Organizers are hoping that the glamour and the racing would have the combined effect of attracting enough crowds. Del Mar has been among the most successful tracks in the US in terms of its ability to stave off financial collapse. It has consistently held is popularity while other events suffered serious drops in visitors. The Racing too has suffered very little at Del Mar. They have been able to preserve its stakes program and offer one of the highest purses anywhere in the country.
Popularity of the event just isn’t enough, though. California racing has seen a severe shortfall of horses and even Del Mar is struggling to fill the field. Trainer Ron Ellis said that the shortage hasn’t hit Del Mar hard enough and that they would be able to, with a little effort, have their five days of racing per week. He added, however, that a look at the fields for the opening days makes the shortage obvious.
Over the course of 37 days, $22 million will be offered in purses. Del Mar will host 8 grade 1 events and give out $7.1 million in stakes races. The Highlight of the meet would be the 1 ¼ miles Polytrack $1 million dollar grade 1 Pacific Classic.
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