Del Mar 2023: Full fields, sellout crowd are set for opening day
With 113 horses in the main draw plus 11 also-eligibles, big fields in all 10 races will greet a sellout crowd Friday to open the 84th summer season at Del Mar.
Five stakes winners, including two trained by Phil D’Amato, were among the 14 horses entered for the featured $100,000 Oceanside, a listed test for 3-year-olds going a mile on the turf at 8:30 p.m. EDT.
Click here for Del Mar entries and results.
Classical Cat, who has not raced since he won the Eddie Logan at Santa Anita in December, is 2-for-2 in grass miles. His front-running stablemate Conclude, who won the Desert Code on May 21 at Santa Anita, stretches past sprint distances for the first time. D’Amato has won the Oceanside twice, including last year with Balnikhov.
The Del Mar betting menu will be the same as it has been in recent years, with the addition of Friday’s $1 million guarantee for a single-ticket, 20-cent, Pick 6 winner.
Multi-race exotics will include early and late Pick 4s and Pick 5s and a Pick 6 through the finale on each day’s card. A Del Mar spokesperson said mandatory-payout days would be scheduled once the meet “is up and running.”
The Super High 5 for each day’s finale, the Pick 4s and Pick 5s are priced at 50 cents for the third year in a row. A $2 win-place-show parlay will be on offer for multiple races each day.
Running mostly on a Thursday-Sunday schedule with a Monday card on Labor Day, the eight-week meet will include 31 racing days through Sept. 10. Each card will have at least eight races and as many as 11. The post time most days including Friday will be 5 p.m. EDT.
The $1 million Pacific Classic (G1), the biggest race of the Del Mar summer, will be run Sept. 2.
Here is the Del Mar betting menu for opening day Friday:
| Race | WPS | Ex | Quin | Tri | Super | DD | WPS parlay | P3 | P4 | P5 | P6 | Also |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2 | $1 | $2 | 50¢ | 10¢ | $2 | $2 | $1 | 50¢ | $1 place pick-all | ||
| 2 | $2 | $1 | $2 | 50¢ | 10¢ | $2 | $2 | $1 | 50¢ | |||
| 3 | $2 | $1 | $2 | 50¢ | 10¢ | $2 | $2 | $1 | ||||
| 4 | $2 | $1 | $2 | 50¢ | 10¢ | $2 | $2 | $1 | ||||
| 5 | $2 | $1 | $2 | 50¢ | 10¢ | $2 | $2 | $1 | 20¢ | |||
| 6 | $2 | $1 | $2 | 50¢ | 10¢ | $2 | $2 | $1 | 50¢ | |||
| 7 | $2 | $1 | $2 | 50¢ | 10¢ | $2 | $2 | $1 | 50¢ | |||
| 8 | $2 | $1 | $2 | 50¢ | 10¢ | $2 | $2 | $1 | ||||
| 9 | $2 | $1 | $2 | 50¢ | 10¢ | $2 | $2 | |||||
| 10 | $2 | $1 | $2 | 50¢ | 10¢ | 50¢ Super High 5 |