Approaching storm prompts Del Mar to cancel Thanksgiving card

DEL MAR, Calif. – A severe storm forecast to hit the San Diego area the middle part of the upcoming holiday week has caused Del Mar to cancel its Thanksgiving Day card Thursday, and move stakes races scheduled for that day and Friday to 48 hours later, the track announced Sunday morning.

The Grade 3 Red Carpet Handicap for older females, which was drawn Saturday and was part of the original Thursday card, will be brought back on Saturday and will be re-drawn on Wednesday with the rest of the Saturday card. The Saturday card is highlighted by the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby, and includes the Grade 2 Seabiscuit for older horses and Grade 3 Jimmy Durante for 2-year-old fillies.

The Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup for older horses, originally scheduled for Friday, will now be run on Sunday as part of a closing-day card that includes the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes for older females and the Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille for 2-year-olds.

All told, there will be seven graded stakes on the turf the final two days of the meet.

Both the Saturday and Sunday cards will be expanded to 10 races, and will begin at noon Pacific.

The Friday card was drawn Sunday and, owing to the weather forecast, will be restricted to dirt races in order to preserve the grass course for closing weekend.

Del Mar also canceled this past Thursday’s card owing to weather. The forecast for the coming week calls for more severe weather than this past week.

“The weatherman is making it tough, but safety always comes first,” Del Mar’s executive vice president for racing, Tom Robbins, said in a press release. “We are appreciative of the cooperation from our horsemen. We’re planning on putting on a good show Friday and following that with tremendous stakes-filled cards on both Saturday and Sunday. We’ve got horses and horsemen coming into town from back east for our big races and we want them to know that their races will be presented as planned under safe and proper conditions.”

Thanksgiving Day is a major sales day for groups and families. Del Mar will still open and serve brunch from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and offer a traditional Thanksgiving meal, along with simulcast wagering from other locales, and televisions showing the day’s National Football League action.