Del Mar 75th Anniversary Season

By Staff Report June 25, 2012

The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, and is pulling out all the stops to make it extra-special for racing fans and members of the local community who visit during the 2012 season, July 18-Sept. 5. A total of $7.775 million will be awarded for races including seven Grade I stakes tests and two new juvenile events on the grass.

Foremost among the showcase classes will be the 22nd edition of the $1 Million TVG Pacific Classic, a 10-furlong test for 3-year-olds-and-up that will anchor a stakes tripleheader program on Sunday, August 26. The Grade I headliner was captured in 2011 by Eclipse champion Acclamation and he’s a solid candidate to try for the prize again in 2012.

The two new juvenile contests – the Oak Tree Juvenile Turf and the Oak Tree Juvenile Fillies Turf – each will be run at a mile on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course with purses of $100,000. The races, meant as stepping stones toward the two Breeders’ Cup’s juvenile grass offerings, also expand the track’s emphasis on its 2-year-old program, considered by many to be among the best in the nation. The Oak Tree Juvenile Fillies Turf will be run on Labor Day, while the Oak Tree Juvenile Turf will be unveiled on closing day.

The introduction of the Oak Tree name to the Del Mar stakes roster serves as a salute to the now-dormant racing association that conducted one of the most successful and beneficial meetings in the country for more than 40 years up until 2010, running almost exclusively at Santa Anita Park. The group, which over the years dispensed more than $26 million to racing-related charities, has partially funded the two new juvenile events and also added funds to Del Mar’s Palomar Handicap, which this year will be renamed the Yellow Ribbon Handicap, a title with original Oak Tree ties. That Grade II race, which will be run under the same conditions as in the past (mile and one-sixteenth on turf, fillies and mares, 3 and up), will be presented on Labor Day with a purse of $250,000.

“Having the Oak Tree name linked with that of Del Mar’s is an honor for both groups,” Del Mar president and CEO Joe Harper said. “Oak Tree stands for the best in this business; they always did and they always will. Clement Hirsch, my mentor, was an original founder of both Oak Tree and the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and my first job in racing management was with him at Oak Tree. I couldn’t be happier to see us come together again.”

Del Mar has also increased the purses of 10 stakes races, with two goals in mind: ensuring, for the most part, that the track’s Grade I program has no race with a value less than $300,000 and also boosting its California-bred offerings as further encouragement for the state’s breeding industry.

Four Grade I races – the Bing Crosby Stakes (July 29), the Del Mar Oaks (August 18), the Del Mar Debutante (September 1) and the Del Mar Futurity (September 5) – all have had their values enhanced by $50,000 to $300,000 for the upcoming meet.

A memorial service for racing photographer Michael J. Marten will be held July 29, the day of the Bing Crosby G1, from  12:30 p.m. to post time at 2 p.m.

Complete schedule at www.dmtc.com

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