Strong closing weekend fuels handle gains at Del Mar fall meet

DEL MAR, Calif. – Del Mar ended its brief and truncated fall meeting on a high note this past weekend, finishing with top-class stakes racing that produced strong betting figures and helped propel the track to its best average daily handle in the six seasons it has held racing at this time of year since the demise of Hollywood Park.

Del Mar reported an average daily handle of $11,291,574, an increase of 8.9 percent from last year and topping the previous fall best of $11,004,979 for 14 days in 2017. The 2017 meeting was 16 days long, but the figures do not include the two days for the Breeders’ Cup, which was hosted by Del Mar for the first time that year.

Average on-track attendance this year was 4,627, essentially even with last year’s 4,620.

“Actually, this was a pretty good meet,” Joe Harper, Del Mar’s president, said in the press box Sunday evening. “We set an all-time average daily handle record for a fall meet.

“I love this meet. It gets good horses, the racing is good, and we made good decisions with the weather.”

This year’s season was originally scheduled for 15 days, but two Thursdays – including Thanksgiving Day – were lost due to dire weather forecasts that proved accurate. Closing on Thanksgiving Day afforded Del Mar the opportunity to serendipitously do the community a solid. The popular restaurant Pamplemousse Grille had a kitchen fire the day before Thanksgiving and was unable to serve its many Thanksgiving Day customers there, so Del Mar made its kitchen facilities available to the restaurant’s staff and had restaurant customers use one of its dining rooms on the sixth floor.

The weather impacted the final week of racing, as two of the turf festival stakes were postponed by 48 hours – resulting in four on Saturday, and three on Sunday – and a card restricted to dirt racing was offered Friday.

“First and foremost, we greatly appreciate the support of our horsemen,” Tom Robbins, the executive vice president for racing, said in a press release.

“For the first time during our fall meets we had to deal with inclement weather, but I am delighted with how both of our surfaces performed.”

Field size averaged 7.4 runners per race, compared to 7.7 a year ago.

Abel Cedillo won one race on closing day to break a deadlock with Drayden Van Dyke and win the riding title by 13-12. It was his first Del Mar title.

Richard Baltas was the leading trainer with 11 wins, five more than runner-up Peter Miller. It was the second Del Mar title for Baltas, but his first outright. He tied with Phil D’Amato in the summer of 2017.