Del Mar hoping to best figures from inaugural fall meet

Four months after the chaotic opening day of the Del Mar summer meeting, the popular San Diego racetrack will launch its 20-day autumn meeting Thursday in a more tranquil setting.

Instead of more than 40,000 people crammed throughout the seaside venue, the audience Thursday will be closer to the 11,513 who attended opening day of the 2014 autumn meeting on a Friday.

“It’s a different kind of meet,” said track president Joe Harper. “It’s more locals. It’s still an opening that draws a lot of people.”

This year’s autumn meeting will run for five weeks, one week longer than last year’s inaugural autumn season. This weekend features the simulcast of the Breeders’ Cup races from Keeneland on Friday and Saturday. Last year, the Breeders’ Cup races were held at Santa Anita on the weekend preceding the Del Mar autumn meeting. Del Mar will host the Breeders’ Cup for the first time in 2017.

The 2014 Del Mar autumn meeting did solid business with an average crowd of 9,055 and an average all-sources handle of $10.4 million. The largest crowd came when 21,889 attended the Saturday program on Thanksgiving weekend, a day highlighted by California Chrome’s win in the Hollywood Derby.

Harper is hoping to beat those averages, particularly if California’s expected wet winter does not arrive in November.

“If Mother Nature is nice to us and we don’t have El Niño, we should be fine,” he said.

California Chrome will not race at this meeting, nor will American Pharoah, the Triple Crown winner who is scheduled to be retired after Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Classic. Instead, Harper and track officials are hoping for widespread support from Southern California horsemen.

This year’s meeting has 17 stakes, three more than last year, and two Grade 1 races worth $300,000 each – the Hollywood Derby on Nov. 28 and the Matriarch Stakes on Nov. 29, closing day.

One of the most significant changes for the upcoming meeting will be a new tote system throughout the state. AmTote has replaced Sportech as the state’s tote provider. Installation of AmTote machines began Sunday.

AmTote officials have been conducting classes for mutuel clerks in the state in recent weeks to ease the transition. AmTote senior vice president Jeff True said last weekend that 850 to 900 clerks statewide have undergone a three-hour class to become familiar with the machines.

The popular self-service machines will be slightly different from the Sportech machines used in California for more than 20 years. For many bettors, the change will be similar to going to a different ATM. Once the layout of the bet menu is understood, placing wagers should be easier. Long lines for bets still are likely in the coming days.

Track and tote officials are desperate to avoid a repeat of the last major tote-system change in 2002 on the opening day of Santa Anita’s winter meeting, when software and technical issues led to lengthy lines and angry bettors. Back then, nearly all bets were processed with paper tickets. With the advent of account-wagering services in the last 15 years, the world of betting has changed.

Thursday’s eight-race program begins at 12:30 p.m. Pacific.