As it has for the past two seasons, Del Mar again will offer 42 stakes races
over the course of a 37-day summer meeting, this time beginning on July 20 and
continuing until September 7. It will be the seaside track’s 72nd
presentation of Thoroughbred sport at its scenic location just north of San
Diego, California.
Highlighting the stakes roster for the 21st straight year is the track’s
showcase event, the Grade 1, $1 million Pacific Classic, which this year will be
offered on Sunday, August 28. The 1 1/4-mile test for three-year-olds and up
will be the richest and most prestigious of 31 major — or advertised — stakes
planned for the summer stand that will see racing conducted once more on a
Wednesday through Sunday basis.
The 31 stakes will have total purse values of $6,075,000. Additionally, the
racing headquarters first opened by entertainment titan Bing Crosby and his
Hollywood pals back in 1937 also will stage 11 overnight stakes with a value of
$935,000, bring the total stakes incentives for the session to $7,010,000.
“In light of all that’s going on in our sport right now, I’m delighted we
were able to avoid any race cuts for our premier events,” said Tom Robbins, Del
Mar’s executive vice president for racing and racing secretary.
“A few of our race purses were trimmed, but for the most part we held firm.
And I’m especially pleased we once again will offer the Pacific Classic with a
$1 million purse.”
In recent years several high-profile million-dollar races had their purses
trimmed below the celebrated seven-figure mark, but Del Mar was able to maintain
that high standard through a partnership with TVG. Last year TVG’s sponsorship
of the Pacific Classic enabled the race to remain at the $1 million level, and
TVG’s parent company, Betfair, agreed to extend their arrangement.
“I believe one of the best things we can do for our sport in general is to
encourage opportunities for distance races on the main track for older horses,”
Robbins added. “We need to provide incentives to race for our good horses,
rather than sending them off to the breeding shed. A million-dollar purse on a
race like the TVG Pacific Classic does just that.”
Four stakes on the 2011 schedule had their purses trimmed by $50,000 each to
allow the track to stay within prescribed percentage guidelines for its stakes
purses established by the Thoroughbred Owners of California. Those races are the
Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks (now worth $250,000), the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile ($200,000),
the Grade 1 Pat O’Brien ($250,000) and the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby ($250,000).
Conversely, all 11 of Del Mar’s overnight stakes rose in value this year from
$75,000 to $85,000 each, a $110,000 total increase that, again, followed
prescribed TOC guidelines for overnight purses.
For the most part the positioning of the track’s 42 stakes parallels last
year’s summer-long presentation. The one slight tweak sees the Pacific Classic
shifting from Saturday to Sunday on the meet’s sixth weekend. Twelve of the 20
previous runnings of the race were conducted on a Sunday, with those days
proving overall to be most popular at the gate and the betting wickets.
Del Mar once more will feature its two championship events for juveniles —
the $250,000 Del Mar Debutante for fillies and the $250,000 Del Mar
Futurity. The pair of Grade 1, seven-furlong dashes will anchor the end of the
meeting, with the Deb going on Labor Day Saturday (September 3) and the Futurity
in its usual closing day spot on September 7.
The track will offer nine separate days where it will present two or more
stakes in an afternoon, highlighted by the Pacific Classic Day card that also
will spotlight the Pat O’Brien at seven panels and the Grade 2, $200,000 Del Mar
Handicap
at 11 furlongs on turf.
Labor Day, September 5, will be the track’s lone exception to its
Wednesday-through-Sunday format and the Monday card will offer a stakes
doubleheader comprising the Grade 2, $150,000 Palomar for fillies and mares on
the grass and the $100,000 I’m Smokin for California-bred juvenile sprinters.
Other notable stakes during the seven-week stand include a trio of Grade 1
tests — the $300,000 Eddie Read on grass July 23, the $250,000 Bing Crosby
at six furlongs July 31 and the $300,000 Clement L. Hirsch for fillies and
mares August 6.
A total of 20 of the track’s major stakes are graded — eight Grade 1s, nine
Grade 2s and three Grade 3s.