Meet opens with full fields, top contenders

DEL MAR, Calif. – Led by a field of 12 in the featured Oceanside Stakes, the entry box was overflowing Sunday at Del Mar, where entries were taken and post positions drawn for the opening-day card Thursday.

A 10-race card is slated, and all 10 races drew at least 10 runners, with fields of 12 in five of the 10 races.

First-post time is 2 p.m. Pacific for the first of 40 days of the summer meeting, which will last through Labor Day, Sept. 7.

The Oceanside, at one mile on turf, landed several promising 3-year-olds, including Papacoolpapacool, a two-time stakes winner during the Santa Anita winter meeting who was a close seventh most recently when favored May 30 in the Penn Mile, and Soul Driver, who returned from a three-month freshening to take the Singletary at Santa Anita on June 20. Though both are stakes winners, the prize money they earned in their stakes wins was just below the value that would have excluded them from the Oceanside, making them formidable opponents in this race.

There are several other races of note Thursday.

Race 4, an optional claimer for older horses on turf, includes Wanstead Gardens, who closed furiously to beat a first-level allowance field June 21 at Santa Anita, and Cyrus Alexander, a half-brother to Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver who will be trying turf and older runners for the first time. Cyrus Alexander was a $1.7 million yearling purchase in September 2013.

Race 9, for older female maiden sprinters, features the much-awaited debut of the well-regarded Dreamologist, a daughter of Tapit who is out of the champion Dreaming of Anna, a Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner.

Race 5 is the first of the meet for 2-year-olds, these being California-bred fillies. Trainer Peter Miller, who has a strong contingent of babies pointed for this meet, entered first-time starters California Song (by Thorn Song) and Plane Lucky (by Lucky Pulpit). Bob Baffert counters with the debuting Fantasy of Luck, a daughter of Lucky Pulpit who brought $180,000 at the Barretts sale in March. Reckless Charm, trained by Jim Cassidy, likely will appreciate the drop into statebred company after facing the highly regarded Uptown Twirl in her debut.

Per tradition, Del Mar opens the meet with a two-turn main-track race, enabling the meet’s first race to start in front of the grandstand. A full field of 10, plus four also-eligibles, is in the one-mile race for older $12,500 claimers. This race will mark the first run on dirt at Del Mar since summer 2006. Beginning in 2007 and through last fall, Del Mar raced on the synthetic surface Polytrack, which was removed over the winter.