Del Mar expanding Ship and Win program

Del Mar is expanding its purse incentive program for out-of-state horses at its upcoming summer meeting to include horses who start in the final three weeks of the current Santa Anita spring-summer meeting or the two-week meeting at Los Alamitos in early July.

During the Del Mar meeting, all runners who have not started in California in 2014 (not including first-time starters) will receive a $1,000 appearance fee. In addition, such horses who earn purse money in overnight races at Del Mar will receive a 33 percent bonus.

In a change from past years, horses from out of state who run at Santa Anita from June 12-29, or at Los Alamitos from July 3-13, will retain eligibility for Del Mar’s bonuses, known as the Ship and Win program. The bonuses are only in effect for a horse’s first start at Del Mar.

The incentive program began in 2011, drawing 107 eligible horses, a figure that grew to 149 in 2013. The track has promoted the incentive program as a way to increase field sizes during the popular summer meeting – and at later Southern California meetings.

Field sizes have increased in recent years at Del Mar. Average field size at the 2010 meeting was 8.2 runners per race, a figure that rose to 8.8 starters in 2013.

Del Mar received approval from the California Horse Racing Board on Thursday for its summer meeting.

Tom Robbins, the track’s director of racing, told the racing board Thursday that the track’s newly installed turf course “is doing very well at this point.”

The wider course was installed in April using sod grown in the Coachella Valley for 18 months, he said.