DEL MAR, Calif. — Del Mar's fall race meeting begins Friday with an eight-race card, including the featured $75,000 Let It Ride Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile on the turf.
Racing will be conducted over 13 days on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays each week along with a Thanksgiving Day card. The first post will be at 12:30 p.m. each day, except on Thanksgiving, when it will be at 11 a.m.
Del Mar Thoroughbred Club President and CEO Joe Harper has been in charge of the racetrack here since 1977. He says there’s a lot to look forward to during the fall races.
"We get good horses. Some of the horses come out from the east because the weather's better," he said. "It's good racing. The grass track is in great shape.”
Harper says Del Mar has become one of the safest tracks in North America for horses. He says overall, they changed what he called the old timer racing culture.
“We started off by looking at where they've been before they got here," he said. "And then we've hired a whole bunch of veterinarians who know these horses. We scatter them around the track in the mornings when they come out here. You really have to look at them and talk to the trainers and sometimes you say, maybe not run that horse.”
The meeting will feature 13 major stakes races and two overnight stakes races, including two $300,000 Grade 1 races on the final weekend, the Hollywood Derby for 3-year-olds at nine furlongs on turf Dec. 2 and the mile- long Matriarch Stakes on turf for older fillies and mares Dec. 3.
The track's 16 betting options include the return of a "classic" Pick Six with the traditional 70-30 daily payout and the elimination of the previous "single-ticket jackpot" portion of the wager.
Special events during the Bing Crosby Season include:
- A Veterans Day salute and College Day program Saturday.
- "Uncorked: Derby Days Wine Fest" (Nov. 18).
- "Toys for Tots Toy Drive and Ride" (Nov. 19) where fans bringing an unwrapped toy or making a monetary donation will receive free admission.
- A beer and cider festival Nov. 23.
- A pop-up gift bazaar Dec. 2.
All seniors receive free admission, a program and a seat on Fridays, while free admission will be available on Sundays, along with a 40% discount on special food and beverage offerings.
A winter clothing drive benefiting the track's backstretch workers and their families will be held throughout the meet. New or "gently used" coats, jackets, sweaters and sweatshirts in all adult and children's sizes are sought.
Donation boxes are located just inside the admissions gate. Donors will receive free admission.
Camilo is the 5-2 morning line favorite in the Let It Ride Stakes following a 2 1/4-length victory in his latest race, a maiden special weight race Oct. 7 at Woodbine in Toronto.
The meeting's name honors the entertainer who co-founded the track.
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