Del Mar opens Friday with 15 stakes during 13-day meet
Entries were drawn Tuesday for Del Mar's eight-race Friday card, which kicks off the track's 13-day fall meet.
This year’s stakes schedule is very similar to last year’s successful line-up. Of the 15 stakes, nine are graded. Over $2 million in purse money will be up for grabs over the course of the four-week meet, including the $300,000, Grade 1 Hollywood Derby on Saturday, Dec. 2 and the $300,000, Matriarch (G1) on Sunday, Dec. 3.
“Where we’re laid out on the calendar is perfect,” Del Mar racing secretary David Jerkens said. “There is just not that many graded opportunities at this time of the year, so it becomes attractive. Especially to have a 3-year-old race like the Hollywood Derby in December and then the Matriarch, a Grade 1 for fillies.”
The pair of Grade 1s are part of the turf festival that runs over the final two week of the fall meet. There will be eight turf races, including the 1 1/2-mile Hollywood Turf Cup (G2) on Friday November 24 and the Seabiscuit (G2) on Saturday November 25.
“I expect to receive the same support we received last year,” Jerkens said of out-of-town trainers who ship in horses for the big races. “Mark Casse is sending a small string. Graham Motion. Wesley Ward has a few horses here. Obviously, the Breeders’ Cup has just wrapped up, but based on past history we’ve received quite a bit of an influx from the Chad Brown and Christophe Clement barns back east.”
Opening weekend has a stakes race each day. The Let It Ride Stakes will be run on Friday, the Kathryn Crosby on Saturday and the Betty Grable for Cal-bred fillies and mares on Sunday. Any movie buff by now has caught on to the theme of the fall meet as Del Mar pays tribute to Hollywood’s past.
The 2-year-olds get their turn on the stakes schedule in week 2 with the Desi Arnaz Stakes for juvenile fillies. It’s part of a stakes doubleheader on Saturday, Nov. 18, with the Cary Grant Stakes for Cal-breds also running that afternoon. Then Sunday, Nov. 19, it’s the 43rd running of the Bob Hope (G3), formerly known as the Hollywood Prevue, for 2-year olds.
The turf festival kicks off Thanksgiving Day with the Red Carpet (G2) for fillies and mares going 1 1/8 miles. It concludes Dec. 3, closing day, with two races, the Matriarch and the one-mile, Cecil B. DeMille (G3) for 2-year-olds, won last year by Speed Boat Beach.