The Breeders’ Cup has selected Del Mar to host the 41st world championships next year, marking the third time the picturesque Pacific track will stage the season-ending graded stakes races that feature the top thoroughbreds. Del Mar will present 14 Grade 1 races with purses worth more than $31 million on Nov. 1-2, 2024. The track last hosted in 2021 at 50% capacity because of…
Hats, or no hats, what first started in 2014 continues forward this year when Del Mar’s ninth fall racing meet – the “Bing Crosby Season” in honor of the track’s iconic founder – begins its four-week run Friday and goes through to Sunday, December 4. Racing will be conducted over 13 days primarily on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday basis each week with a first post…
The Breeders’ Cup World Championships, the ultimate handicapping challenge for horseplayers, returns to Del Mar in Southern California this weekend, with Saturday’s schedule featuring nine championship races, including the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf and $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic. The latter features an elite field. Seven of the nine horses already have won a Grade 1 race and six of the nine have earned…
Came opening day, Friday, July 16 at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club; hats, hats and more hats were the madcap sidebar to the main story of the moment, namely the excitement of racing’s return. That sorta post-pandemic opening day was not only about big bets and fast horses, but celebrating the season in style. This year, the Breeders Cup, aka the Super Bowl of racing, doffs…
(Editor’s Note: Ray Paulick’s Report, based at Lexington, Kentucky, is an authoritative home for Thoroughbred racing news shining light on the horse industry. North America’s leading independent Thoroughbred racing website can be found at www.paulickreport.com.) California’s horse racing industry has never been good at long-range planning. Instability will do that. Historic Bay Meadows racetrack in San Mateo in the Bay Area was shuttered for development…
Thoroughbreds jogged on the main racetrack at Del Mar this week as life after the horrific training track fire in nearby Bonsall began to settle for horses and horsemen involved with the events at San Luis Rey Downs last Thursday. Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and 22nd District Agricultural Association officials reported that there were currently 260 Thoroughbreds and approximately 500 other-breed horses stabled on the…
Will you be one of the more than 40,000 fans expected for opening day at the Del Mar racetrack? The seven-week meet kicks off with Opening Day on Wednesday, July 19, and the action continues through to Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 4. The long-standing summer tradition in San Diego has the reputation as one of the area’s must-see festivities, whether you’re a Thoroughbred racing aficionado or just a…