2009 Del Mar Stakes Schedule
Del Mar, the handsome racing headquarters next to the blue Pacific "where nobody's in a hurry but the horses," will celebrate its 70th season of Thoroughbred sport this summer highlighted by a robust stakes schedule that features 31 major events worth nearly $7-million. The racing action -- and all the wondrous seaside fun that goes on around it -- gets under way on Wednesday, July 22 and runs through Wednesday, September 9.
Chief among the major offerings engineered by the track's Director of
Racing Tom Robbins is the $1-million Pacific Classic, Del Mar's mile
and one quarter signature event that will be presented for its 19th
running at the shore oval -- though this time it will be sporting a
unique scheduling twist. In a case of saving the best for last, the
rich headliner will be stacked with three other black-type tests on
Sunday, September 6 to add special sparkle to a blockbuster Labor Day
weekend and a powerhouse close to the seven-week stand.
"We've
done some tinkering, some fine-tuning and some shifting about," noted
Robbins. "In the end, we've come up with a stakes schedule I really
like -- one that builds to an exciting finish and has a little bit of
everything for everybody."
Among the changes racing fans will note are:
*
New Grade I designations on two popular local stakes, the Clement L.
Hirsch and the Pat O'Brien. The $300,000 Hirsch, for fillies and mares,
will be run on Sunday, August 9, while the $300,000 O'Brien, a
seven-panel dash, will add extra punch to Pacific Classic Day,
September 6.
* The shifting of the Del Mar Futurity from its
normal closing-day spot to a feature role on Labor Day Monday, along
with an enhancement of its purse from $250,000 to $300,000.
*
The renaming of the Del Mar Debutante as the Darley Debutante, honoring
a liaison between the track and the worldwide racing and breeding giant
that will provide significant extras to the juvenile filly championship
race scheduled for September 5, including a purse rise from $250,000 to
$300,000.
* The reshaping of the closing weekend with its Labor
Day anchor featuring a stakes bonanza of 11 races between Friday and
Monday dubbed the Pacific Classic Racing Festival, highlighted by six
Graded events, four of them Grade I's.
* The dropping of
handicap conditions on five of the track's record nine Grade I events--
the $350,000 Eddie Read Stakes (Sunday, July 25), the $300,000 Bing
Crosby Stakes (Saturday, August 8), the Clement L. Hirsch Stakes, the
$350,000 John C. Mabee Stakes (Sunday, August 16) and the Pat O'Brien
Stakes. The installation of allowance conditions in place of handicap
conditions is reflective of similar adjustments taking place nationwide.
*
Besides the big four-stake afternoon around the Pacific Classic, there
also will be four other afternoons (July 25, August 9, September 5 and
September 7) that feature stakes doubleheaders.
"We're loaded
for bear again this summer," DMTC's president and general manager Joe
Harper said in reference to the schedule. "If you like to see really
good racehorses run, you surely can do it by coming to Del Mar."
The
total stakes monies for the 31 advertised events is $6,950,000. In
addition, the track also will offer 11 overnight stakes races -- each
with a value of $85,000 -- for an additional $935,000 in purses. The
total package, then, is worth $7,885,000, including 19 Graded stakes --
nine Grade I's, eight Grade II's and two Grade III's.
Additionally,
eight of Del Mar's stakes are designated "Win and You're In" contests,
offering the victorious horses automatic starting spots in their
corresponding Breeders' Cup championship races, which will be held this
year at the Oak Tree-at-Santa Anita meet on November 6 and 7. Those
eight Del Mar races are the $250,000 San Diego Handicap (Sunday, August
2), the $150,000 Cougar II Handicap (Wednesday, August 5), the John C.
Mabee, the $300,000 Del Mar Mile (Saturday, August 29), the $250,000
Del Mar Handicap (Sunday, August 30), the $200,000 Rancho Bernardo
Handicap (Friday, September 4), the Pat O'Brien and the Pacific
Classic.
The Del Mar Handicap, which is run at the marathon
distance of a mile and three-eighths on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course,
is the granddaddy of Del Mar stakes. It has been run every season Del
Mar has been open and will be presented for the 70th time this year.
Opening
the meet on July 22 will be the highly popular Oceanside Stakes with
its $100,000 purse and the virtual certainty of being split. The
one-mile grass race -- the kickoff to the track's stellar 3-year-old
turf series that also includes the $150,000 La Jolla Handicap
(Saturday, August 15) and the $350,000 Del Mar Derby (Pacific Classic
Day, September 6) -- has been divided into two races (and once into
three) 28 times in its 64 runnings, including the last 20 in a row.
The complete list of stakes can be found at http://www.dmtc.com/racinginfo/stakes.php.
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