Del Mar opener will be much quieter than past seasons

Perhaps at some point in the next eight weekends the Del Mar summer meeting will gain a slight measure of normalcy.

When the season starts Friday, there will no ontrack spectators because of the coronavirus outbreak. Track officials have said in the last few weeks they are hopeful at least horse owners will be able to attend races sometime before closing day on Sept. 7, pending approval from government officials.

Like other racing fans, from the casual to the devoted, owners will watch from afar this weekend.

Typically, the first race of the season is met with warm and rowdy cheer from an ontrack audience eager to witness the launch of the most anticipated race meeting in Southern California. This year, the field will break in front of a silent grandstand.

The same policy of racing without spectators was in place at Santa Anita from mid-March through June 21 and for the two-week meeting at Los Alamitos earlier this summer.

Similar to those tracks, Del Mar will have a different summer meeting in many ways.

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Purses for overnight races have been slashed 20 percent because of an anticipated drop in revenue without ontrack betting.

Wagering will be conducted primarily through account-wagering sources, with some limited simulcast betting from tracks and offtrack locations. For opening weekend, there is no simulcasting from Los Alamitos or Santa Anita, for example, after a resurgence in coronavirus positives in California in recent weeks. Officials at those venues hope to welcome simulcast customers later this summer.

The financial impact has caused a reduction in stakes purses at Del Mar. The richest race of the meeting remains the Grade 1 Pacific Classic on Aug. 22, but it will be worth $500,000 for the first time this year. Its customary purse has been $1 million since the race was launched in 1991. Overall, the purses of 22 of the 32 six-figure stakes will be less than in 2019.

The Pacific Classic, one of five Grade 1 races at the summer meeting, is part of the richest program of the season, with five stakes worth a combined $1.05 million. Last year, the corresponding stakes on the same program were worth $1.75 million.

The racing schedule has been cut from five days a week to three, and will be conducted from Fridays through Sundays with races added on those days to replace the missing programs.

A few stakes were eliminated, and the dates of others were rearranged. The $100,000 Shared Belief Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles has been typically run at the end of August. This year, the race will be held Aug. 1 and is part of the qualifying schedule for the Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5 at Churchill Downs, another race affected by the pandemic.

While racing will continue at Del Mar, the absence of an ontrack audience will be the most significant change.

Even the voice of Del Mar will be different this year. Trevor Denman informed track officials last month that he would not call the races this summer for the first time since 1983 because of the coronavirus outbreak. Larry Collmus, well known as the voice of the Triple Crown races on NBC, will be the announcer this summer.

Some things have not changed. Flavien Prat, and his riding colleagues such as Drayden Van Dyke and Abel Cedillo are contenders for the riding title Prat won last summer. Van Dyke was leading rider at the 2018 summer meeting. This year, Juan Hernandez, the leading jockey at Golden Gate Fields earlier this year, is riding at Del Mar for the first time and could be in title contention.

Trainers such as Doug O’Neill, Richard Baltas, and Peter Miller are expected to contend for the training title O’Neill won last summer. Miller was leading trainer in 2018, a year after Baltas and Phil D’Amato tied for the title in the summer of 2017.

Trainer Bob Baffert’s runners will be eagerly scrutinized, from new arrival Maximum Security, the champion 3-year-old male of 2019 who is set to run in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap on July 18, to the scores of 2-year-olds the barn unveils annually in late summer.

In that regard, Del Mar will be the same as in past years.