OVER 100 HORSES SET TO RACE OPENING DAY AT DEL MAR
Handicappers will be tested and casual race fans will be entertained by the line-up of horses entered on Opening Day this Friday at Del Mar. 101 horses are entered in the 10 races set to kick-off at 2 p.m. The traditional Opening Day feature race, the $150,000 Caesars Sportsbook Oceanside Handicap, drew a full field of 12. They’ll run one mile on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course.
The Oceanside is the first of 37 stakes races spread out over the 32 race days at Del Mar this summer. It features the return of Mr. A.P., runner-up to 2-year-old champion Ted Noffey in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar last fall. There are also several stakes winners in the field including Secured Freedom, winner of the $100,000 Affirmed Stakes at Santa Anita; Unrivaled Time, winner of the $125,000 Snow Chief and Bust Out, winner of the $100,000 Cinema Stakes.
The contentious race for 3-year-olds is Race 8 on the card.
Friday begins with a nine-horse field in a $16,000 claimer. It’s for 3-year-olds and up and is one mile on the dirt. They’ll start right in front of the grandstand, which always makes for a boisterous beginning to the meet.
It’s followed by three more maiden races, two more claiming races, and three allowance races including the sixth race, a second-level allowance featuring 11 entries going a mile and a sixteenth on the turf. Tempus Volat winner of last fall’s Let It Ride Stakes at Del Mar, will run for trainer Leonard Powell against several cagey veterans like Maaz, runner-up in last year’s G2 Twilight Derby at Santa Anita who hasn’t raced since his saddle slipped in last fall’s G1 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar.
Of course, Friday is just the beginning of a weekend chocked full of quality racing. Saturday marks the return of Journalism to the seaside oval. He’ll compete with six other rivals in the 85th running of the G2 San Diego. Saturday’s program also features the 59th running of the G2 San Clemente. Eleven 3-year-old fillies are set to go in that one.
First post for all three days of opening weekend (and on all cards up to closing weekend) is 2 p.m.
STABLES BEGIN TO FILL AS OPENING WEEKEND DRAWS CLOSE
It started Sunday night. Large horse trailers pulled off of Jimmy Durante Blvd. into the Fairgrounds stable area. Trainer Mike Puype was one of the first to arrive at Del Mar with his string of horses. “We got some live ones,” Puype insisted.
Several barns trickled in during the early morning hours. The first of Richard Mandella’s string arrived a little after 2 a.m. By the time the sun came up there were a couple hundred horses on the grounds, including those belonging to 2025 California Trainer of the Year Steve Knapp. Leonard Powell, who brought over 40 horses to the dance, had his barn up and running by Monday morning, well ahead of the first major influx of horses to Del Mar. By Tuesday morning the population on the backside had tripled.
Track officials expect up to 1,800 horses will eventually make their way to Del Mar with the population expected to peak in the first couple weeks of August. But for now, there are bales of hay stacked four or five high in front of many barns as well as piles of buckets, rakes, hoses and other gear. Within a few days all that clutter will find its rightful place.
Tuesday marked the first day of training on the main track. Just the day before, large tractors were working on the one-mile oval tilling up the effects of winter, not to mention the wear and tear from the recently concluded County Fair. By early Tuesday morning, horses were out on the finely groomed dirt, which resembles pillow stuffing more than the dirt you find in your backyard garden.
Trainer Michael McCarthy had his entourage of horses galloping throughout the morning.
“Love the weather,” McCarthy noted as he prepared his horses for their morning training. “Back to the eighth pole, wire to wire,” were the instructions he barked out to the exercise riders as they passed. Over a dozen horses made their way out to the track for this particular session but the star of the barn, Journalism, was not one of them. He was tucked away in his stall resting up for bigger things to come this weekend.
Phil D’Amato’s stable also arrived Monday, taking up the entire ‘A’ barn on the far eastern end of the backside. His horses, including Motorious, Shea Brennan and Later than Planned, all seemed to be enjoying the cool ocean breezes. Peter Miller could also be seen moving into his barn, getting things ready for another summer meet and Mandella was hard at work in his office, pouring over the schedules he’s devised for his horses. The Hall of Fame trainer has been spending his summers at Del Mar dating back to the 1970’s.
So, it’s all coming together. By Friday at 2 p.m. the seaside oval will be functioning as if we had never left the place. The 89th year at Del Mar is just days away.
PURSE INCREASES, LONGER RACES NEW FOR 2026 DEL MAR STAKES LINEUP
A couple of purse increases and adjustments to a set of 2-year-old stakes races highlight the changes to the Del Mar summer meet stakes schedule in 2026. The first change comes with the opening day feature, the $150,000 Caesars Sportsbook Oceanside Stakes for 3-year-olds on the lawn. That’s a $50,000 purse increase for the 81st running of the one-mile event.
Over $7.7 million will be up for grabs in the 37 stakes races beginning opening day and played out over the 32-day schedule that ends on Labor Day, September 7. Six of those stakes are Grade I’s including the marquee race of the meet, the $1 million Pacific Classic to be run on August 22.
Six of the stakes have been designated Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” races including the G2 Green Flash, which has been upgraded from a Grade 3 this year and offers a purse increase of $50,000 to $200,000 in 2026.
Four of the Juvenile stakes races are longer in distance in 2026. The CTBA Stakes on August 2 and the Graduation Stakes on August 7 will stretch out an extra half a furlong to 5 ½ furlongs and the Generous Portion on September 4 and the I’m Smokin Stakes on September 7 will be six furlong sprints this year, a half a furlong longer than in the past.
The big day of the summer remains Pacific Classic Day with its four graded stakes races. Aside from the 1 ¼ mile Classic, which will be run for the 36th time this summer, the robust card will offer the G1 Del Mar Oaks, which remains in its customary slot on the stakes calendar but will join the big event for the first time. There is also the G2 Del Mar Mile and the aforementioned G2 Green Flash.
Other notable favorites on the stakes schedule include the G1 Bing Crosby on Saturday, July 25. It’s a ‘Win and You’re In’ for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint; the G1 Clement L. Hirsch on August 1, a ‘Win and You’re In’ for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff; and the G2 Del Mar Handicap with all hopes on the return of Gold Phoenix who, if he does make the race, would be trying for a fifth consecutive win in the long distance grass race on Saturday, August 29. The Del Mar ‘Cap is a ‘Win and You’re In’ for the B.C. Turf.
As always, the 2-year-olds will grab the spotlight toward the end of the summer meet with the G1 Del Mar Debutante and the G1 Del Mar Futurity highlighting the racing on the meet’s final weekend. The Debutante will be run on Saturday, September 5 and the Futurity on Sunday, September 6.
It promises to be another summer of quality racing featuring the top horses on the West Coast spread out over the eight-week run, many of whom will go on and compete in this year’s Breeders’ Cup championships at Keeneland in the fall.
Racing will be conducted Thursdays through Sundays with first post at 2 p.m. except on closing weekend when post times are moved up to 1:30 p.m. and there will be racing on that Monday, Labor Day, September 7.
COOLING OUT: The card for Saturday was drawn over the weekend. The 11-race program attracted 115 horses. In addition to the two graded stakes races there will be three allowance races, two claimers and four maiden races. Four of the races will be run on the grass…The paddock area was opened to horses for the first time this season on Tuesday. Several horses took a trip around that pristine oval before making their way out onto the track…A reminder about Friday’s new post time. No longer will the Friday card begin later in the afternoon. It now has the same start time as the rest of the race week at 2 p.m.