Del Mar adds three stakes to fall meet

DEL MAR, Calif. – Del Mar has expanded the stakes schedule for its autumn meeting that runs from Oct. 29 to Nov. 29 to include three races run in recent years at Santa Anita.

Two $200,000, seven-furlong races for California-bred 2-year-olds – the Golden State Juvenile Fillies and Golden State Juvenile – will be run on the first two days of the meeting. The first Sunday of the meet, Nov. 1, is led by the $200,000 Goldikova Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf, a prep for the $300,000 Matriarch Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf on closing day, Nov. 29.

The Golden State races and Goldikova Stakes were run at Santa Anita in recent years on the weekend of the Breeders’ Cup. This year, the Breeders’ Cup races are at Keeneland on Oct. 30-31. With Del Mar open for live racing during that week, the track will receive increased revenue from handle and can afford to host those races.

The five-week autumn meeting runs a week longer than the corresponding meeting in 2014, which was the track’s first autumn meeting since 1967. The track inherited the autumn dates following the closure of Hollywood Park at the end of 2013.

The purses of three Grade 3 races have been cut by $50,000 each, including two one-mile turf races for 2-year-olds – the Jimmy Durante Stakes for fillies Nov. 28 and the Cecil B. DeMille Stakes on Nov. 29. Those two races are each worth $100,000 now. The purse of the Native Diver Stakes for older horses at 1 1/8 miles on Nov. 28 has been cut from $200,000 to $150,000.