Opening day 14-Horse Oceanside Kicks at Del Mar

Last week, it was Racecourse Saratogamoments in the summer opening spotlight. Now it’s Del Marit’s turn.

The racetrack in the San Diego area opened to a sold-out crowd on July 22, with fans eager for the beach feel and quality racing being the annual summer experience there. The track is limited to opening day, as it did last summer and during the Breeders’ Cup in the fall.

The betting schedule is the most lucrative in track history, featuring 34 races and $8.275 million in cash. More than half of the stakes have seen an increase in wallets this year for the 31-day meeting in the summer, the 83rd in the track’s history.

Del Mar’s grand opening day regular feature, $100,000 Oceanside Staking, kicks off staking action. A one-mile limited test on grass for 3-year-olds, Oceanside is part of the second track program for runners leading to the $300,000 Caesars Sportsbook Del Mar Derby (G2T) on September 3.

The Del Mar Derby is part of a five-money hand on September 3, topped by the $1 million TVG Pacific Classic (G1), a 1/4 mile race expected to attract the undefeated. Flight route , the top-ranked horse in North America. Other horses likely to run in the Pacific Classic or prepare for it, the July 30 San Diego Handicap (G2) match, include National Grammar, Express train , Senor Buscador , Stilleto boy , There Goes Harvard and Tripoli .

As part of Breeders ‘Cup’s “Win and You’re In” Challenge Series, Pacific Classic offers a paid, automatic entry to the Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) this fall at Keeneland. Five more races — July 30 Bing Crosby bets (G1), August 6 Clement L. Hirsch bets (G1), August 27 Pat O’Brien handicap (G2), March 3 Del Mar handicap 9 (G2T) and Green Flash Handicap (G3T) September 4 — qualifying horses for the various Breeders’ Cup races.

Summers at Del Mar tend to bring a large amount of equine talent to the state, drawn in part by the track’s “Ship & Win” program that provides bonuses to out-of-state horses.

According to race secretary David Jerkens, several stables from the East and Midwest will also send horses to the West, including Patrick Biancone, Robertino Diodoro, John Ennis, Jeff Engler, Mike Maker and Jack Sisterson.

These additions, plus the fact that trainers Bob Baffert and Peter Miller operate their cages at maximum performance, will benefit the entries, necessary for Del Mar to maintain size. The field in most races four days a week. After the opening week, the track operates primarily on a Thursday-Sunday schedule, with the exception of a race-delayed meeting on Labor Day, September 5.

The big fields were Friday’s order, with 110 horses taking part in 10 races. The other 14 horses are also witch horses. Registrations are typically high on opening day before tapering off as the meeting progresses.

“Winning a race here counts for a lot of people,” Jerkens said of the meeting.

Tom Robbins, Del Mar’s executive vice president of racing and industry relations, said the track seeks to fit the 8.5 starters per race it averaged last year.

Del Mar hopes to maintain its exemplary safety record in recent years. According to the Jockey Club Horse Injury Database, Del Mar has only one horse racing death in the years 2020 and 2021, a collective occurrence rate of just 0.29 per 1,000 starts. .

“It was the acquisition of our owner, our coach, our track manager, our governing body (California Equestrian Board) – we all joined forces,” Robbins said when explain success.

Balnikhov and Mackinnon are two of the more successful grass performers in Oceanside 14 Horses.

Balnikhov, coached by Phil D’Amato, has twice finished second in spring games, including the American Turf Stakes presented by BMW (G2T) at the Churchill Downs May 7, before failing to place fourth in the latest June 4th in Cinema Stakes in Santa Anita. He races with blinks after adding the equipment in the Cinema.

Comebacking Mackinnon, the winner of last summer’s Del Mar course, finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1T). He finished fourth in the January 1 (G3) Sham Stakes match on dirt and second in the February 12 El Camino Real Derby on synthetics before coach Doug O’Neill refreshed him to wait. a summer campaign.

“It’s always hard to simulate a race in the morning, but I think he’s ready to get back into racing,” his coach said. “We’ll know more on Friday afternoon, but he’s doing well.”

Owned by ERJ Racing, Madaket Stables and Dave Kenney, Mackinnon is named after Nathan MacKinnon of Colorado Avalanche who won the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup. MacKinnon’s teammate Erik Johnson owns and races horses as ERJ Racing.

“I thought he was going to be there on opening day. So I was excited,” O’Neill said of Johnson.

Longtime broadcaster Trevor Denman will also return to Del Mar this summer after going missing last fall due to injury and all of 2020 due to COVID-19 considerations.

“Santa Anita is beautiful, and we love it, but it’s like school,” O’Neill said. “Santa Anita ends, and school breaks, and the first day of summer begins at Del Mar.”