Live Thoroughbred racing returns to Southern California on Friday as The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club’s 2023 summer race meet is set to get underway for the 84th time. Initially, the San Diego-area track will operate on a Friday-through-Sunday schedule for the first week of of the meeting and switch to a Thursday-through-Sunday lineup for the remainder of the season until the three-day closing weekend, Friday, September 8 through Sunday, September 10.
Del Mar Racetrack – Photo Courtesy of www.dmtc.com
While the seaside oval doesn’t carry as lengthy a history and tradition of its sister summer track Saratoga in Saratoga Springs, NY, it does offer some of its own customs, including a rich stakes schedule and some of the sport’s top runners listed in the record books as previous winners.
This year a total of 39 stakes worth $8.275 million are on tap over the 31-day season, led by the $1 million FanDuel TV Pacific Classic (G1) on Saturday, September 2. The 1 1/4-mile fixture, won last year by eventual Horse of the Year Flightline, will be run for the 33rd time and is one of the six Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” qualifying events held at Del Mar, this one guaranteeing the winner a spot in the gate for the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic (GI) at Santa Anita on November 4.
Seventeen of the stakes will be run on the grass with the other 22 on the main track. The turf course, which was expanded and totally replaced prior to the 2014 season, will be in full use all summer long while the main track was returned to dirt after an eight-year run with the synthetic Polytrack in 2015.
The other five races offered as “Win and You’re In” Breeders’ Cup events this summer are the $300,000 Bing Crosby Stakes (GI), which guarantees admission to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint); $300,000 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes (GI) on Sunday, July 30, assuring a spot in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff); the Del Mar Handicap (GII) for the Breeders’ Cup Turf; the $200,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes (GII) on August 26 for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile; and the Green Flash Handicap (GIII) at five furlongs on turf on Saturday for the $1million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.
As always, juveniles are a major part of the summer racing scene at Del Mar and several stakes for next year’s Kentucky Derby (GI) and Kentucky Oaks (GI) hopefuls are on tap, the first being for California-breds on August 6 in the CTBA Stakes for girls and on August 11 in the Graduation Stakes for boys. Fillies get their first chance in open company in the Sorrento Stakes (GIII) on August 12, a prep for the September 9 Del Mar Debutante (GI), and the colts and geldings will get their chance in the Best Pal Stakes (GII) on August 12, which is a prep for the Del Mar Futurity (GI) on closing day Monday, September 10.
Some amazing runners in history have brought home the win in the big Del Mar two-year-old races, including Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in 2014 and notable names Best Pal, Bertrando, Gato Del Sol, Silver Charm, Declan’s Moon and Nyquist. Hall of Fame Trainer Bob Baffert has won the Del Mar Futurity a whopping 16 times and is odds-on to have at least one talented runner this year attempt to give him his 17th.
Opening day offers a 10-race card with a whopping 124 horses entered, including the traditional feature, the $100,000 Caesar’s Sportsbook Oceanside Stakes for sophomores. The one-mile turf test attracted 14 who will race the one-mile over the Jimmy Durante course.
Familiar Wagering Menu, Some Changes
For the first time, Del Mar Thoroughbred Club will present a $1-million guarantee to any single-ticket holder who hits the track’s popular Pick Six on its Opening Day, Friday, July 21.
The Pick Six wager can cost as little as .20¢. In a potential Opening Day scenario where a horse player would hold the lone ticket on the Pick Six that pays, say $300,000, that afternoon, the track shortly thereafter would write him/her an addition check for $700,000 to make the payoff a cool $1 million.
Besides the Opening Day special arrangement, there will be multiple other days during the meet where a “mandatory payout” will be in effect for the Pick Six. Del Mar’s record Pick Six pool was $10,751,768, which occurred on Saturday, August 21, 2021. Its highest Pick Six payout is $2,100,017, which happened on August 1, 2004 when there was a single-ticket winner.
Repeat fan-favored wagers — the .50¢ Pick Four, beginning on Race 2; a .50¢ late Pick 5 offered on the last five races daily; and a $2 win, place, show Parlay available for a minimum of two races and a maximum of six.
The full Del Mar wagering menu:
$2 win, place and show (all races)
$1 Exacta (all)
$2 Quinella (all);
50¢ Trifecta (all)
$2 Rolling Doubles (all except last)
50¢ Rolling Pick 3* (all except last two)
$1 Superfecta (10¢ minimum – all)
$1 Place Pick All (starts w/Race 1 or 2)
50¢ Super High 5 (last)
20¢ Pick Six (last six)
50¢ Players’ Pick 5 (first five and last five)
50¢ Pick 4 (Races 2 thru 5 and last four)
$2 Win-Place-Show Parlay (all races but last)
Rich Purses Compliment Stakes Schedule
Del Mar’s summer meet set records in 2022 with more than $18.7 million in daily average handle and a robust 9.1 average field size, ranking it high up among the nation’s elite racing programs.
The track’s popular and lucrative “Ship & Win” incentive program is in its 13th year and again provides owners and trainers of qualified runners with $5,000 starter bonuses and 50% purse supplements for dirt runners, as well as $4,000 bonuses and 40% supplements to grass starters.
Again this year is Del Mar’s Maiden Dirt Bonus plan, which expanded in 2022 to include all-aged maidens at the higher end of the scale, luring runners to take part in the track’s best non-winners races with sizeable purses of up to $102,500 per event for eligible participants. Additionally, Del Mar will be offering record levels for maiden special weight races (MSW) at the track this year of $82,000 each, the highest MSW purses in California history.
Post time every day is 2:00 p.m. PDT.
The writing team at US Racing is comprised of both full-time and part-time contributors with expertise in various aspects of the Sport of Kings.
