Del Mar Releases Fall Stakes Lineup

From DMTC Publicity

                DEL MAR, Calif. (Aug. 26, 2015) — Three new stakes races will be presented during Del Mar’s second fall racing season, which begins on October 29 and continues through to November 29. The additional races – each with a value of $200,000 – mean that the stakes roster for the 20-day session will swell to $2,700,000.

The races – the Golden State Juvenile Fillies, the Golden State Juvenile and the Goldikova Stakes – are, in effect, being “borrowed” from Santa Anita for one season and allow Del Mar to offer 17 stakes during its five-week stand. The Los Angeles-area track has a shorter fall season this year and timing issues were not going to permit it to present the three named stakes. With encouragement from the California Horse Racing Board and the Thoroughbred Owners of California, Del Mar took on the races for 2015 to ensure that they’d continue to be offered to Southern California horsemen.

In 2014, when Del Mar presented 15 days of racing over four weeks, the track offered 14 stakes worth $2,250,000.

In 2015 the track will be the Southern California host for the two Breeders’ Cup race days – Friday, October 30 and Saturday, October 31. Besides the full Breeders’ Cup cards from Keeneland on each day, Del Mar will serve up nine races of its own on those afternoons providing a racing bonanza for its fans.

Topping this year’s stakes lineup are a pair of Grade I headliners, each offering a purse of $300,000 – the Hollywood Derby at nine furlongs on grass for 3-year-olds on Saturday, November 28 and the Matriarch Stakes at a mile on grass for fillies and mares on Sunday, November 29.

The track also will present three Grade II stakes and five Grade III affairs for a total of 10 graded races among its 17 offerings.

“We’ll be emphasizing turf racing and offering a half dozen stakes for 2-year-olds,” noted DMTC’s executive vice president for racing Tom Robbins. “Our Thanksgiving weekend finish will find us on the grass for six stakes at every level, which will be lucrative for our horsemen and exciting for our fans.”

Once again Del Mar will return to its roots by theming the fall session as the “Bing Crosby Season,” a throw-back salute to its celebrity founder with a focus on an “old time Hollywood” feel at the seaside course. That presentation proved highly successful last fall when the track took over the majority of the fall racing dates previously run by the now-closed Hollywood Park.

The track’s Thursday, October 29 opening will feature the Gold State Juvenile Fillies, a seven-furlong dash for 2-year-old California-bred females. The next day the male version of the race – the Golden State Juvenile – will be up for grabs.

Its trio of Grade II presentations consist of the Goldikova at a mile on the turf for fillies and mares on Sunday, November 1; the $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup at 12 furlongs on the grass for 3-year-olds and up on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 26, and the $250,000 Seabiscuit Handicap at a mile and one-sixteenth on the lawn on Friday, November 27.

The Grade III’s are the $100,000 Bob Hope Stakes at seven furlongs for 2-year-olds Saturday, November 14; the $100,000 Red Carpet at 11 furlongs on turf for fillies and mares on Saturday, November 21; the $100,000 Jimmy Durante Stakes at a mile on the green for 2-year-old fillies on Saturday, November 28; the $150,000 Native Diver Handicap at a mile and one eighth for 3-year-olds and up also on Saturday, November 28, and the $100,000 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes at a mile on the grass for 2-year-olds on Sunday, November 29.

Del Mar will race Thursday through Sunday throughout its meet. First post daily will be at 12:30 p.m. There will be one exception to the 12:30 starts, that coming on Thanksgiving Day when the eight-race card will begin at 11 a.m. and finish at 2:30 in plenty of time for turkey dinner.

The complete list of stakes follows: