Another Opening Day is in the books and it certainly lived up to its billing. It was a day full of close finishes and longshot winners mixed in with the beautiful weather, beautiful horses and beautiful people.

Take a drive on Freeway 5 on any sunny day and you’ll quickly understand why every summer San Diego is a destination for thousands of people from around the world. The views of the Pacific Ocean, with its silhouettes of palm trees, can be breathtaking.

A dozen distaff runners will take to the Del Mar lawn Sunday, July 20 in the Osunitas Stakes.

The 3-year-old filly division – always one that requires a fair degree of sorting out – takes a step toward local clarity here Saturday when nine classy lassies run a mile on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course in the 58th edition of the San Clemente Handicap.

It’s been the traditional Opening Day feature at Del Mar since 1977 and the $100,000 Oceanside Stakes is back again in 2025 with a solid 10-horse field. Some notable horses have used the race as a stepping stone to bigger and better things. There was Hawkster in 1989; Ladies Din in 1998; Twirling Candy in 2010, and Conclude in 2023.

What a difference a day makes. The stable area on the backside at Del Mar is beginning to look more like mid-August. The stalls are filling up, grooms are hustling about, tending to the new arrivals, and the bathing stalls are full of happy horses get their morning baths.

By Tuesday morning it was beginning to look like the Del Mar backside as we’ve come to know it. Horses going through their morning routines, be it a simple walk along the shedrow or a quick gallop out on to the main track which was open for the first time this season.

The Oceanside, the first of Del Mar's trio of grass stakes for 3-year-olds, drew a field of 10 with Iron Man Cal in as the favorite.

New for 2025, fans must have a SeatGeek account to purchase tickets to the Oct. 31-Nov. 1 Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Del Mar.

A pair of highly successful Del Mar programs that its horsemen and horsewomen have found to be especially popular – “Ship & Win” and the Maiden Dirt Bonus – again will enhance Del Mar’s summer meet purses when racing resumes on Friday, July 18.