Del Mar attracts record crowd for opener

DEL MAR, Calif. - Opening day at Del Mar just keeps getting bigger. A single-day track record crowd of 46,588 stuffed itself into the track on Wednesday, eclipsing last year's opening day crowd of 45,309, which had stood as the track's best attendance day ever.

That marked the seventh straight year that the attendance topped 40,000 on opening day.

Handle also was up. Overall handle was $13,234,590, an increase of 6.2 percent from last year. Ontrack handle was $4,174,139, an increase of more than 9 percent from last year's opener.