Trainer Andrew Lerner won at Del Mar for the first time in the summer of 2017. The stable had six horses and a Spartan office on the backstretch. An overturned bucket doubled as a chair. Furnishings and the number of runners in the stable have improved significantly in the last two years. When the Del Mar summer meeting begins Wednesday, the 30-year-old Lerner will have 40 horses in his care. “It really is crazy,” Lerner reflected last weekend. The stable has not just grown in size, but in prominence. Lerner won his first stakes on June 29 at Los Alamitos with Queen Bee to You in the $100,351 Bertrando Stakes for California-bred milers. Lerner’s stable roster has swelled in recent months with horses transferred from other stables and the acquisition of 2-year-olds through public and private sales. The Del Mar meeting, which runs through Sept. 2, could be a breakthrough season for Lerner, who through Sunday had won 17 races from 52 runners this year. Lerner won six races from 16 runners at the spring-summer portion of the Santa Anita meeting earlier this year, finishing in a tie for 11th in the trainer standings. Ideally, Lerner would like to crack the top 10 in the trainer standings at Del Mar. “That’s the goal,” he said. “That would be something.” Lerner has taken an unconventional trek to the Southern California racetracks. After attending college at Arizona State, where he studied commercial real estate, Lerner worked in real estate and owned a website management company in Santa Monica, Calif. A lifelong racing fan, Lerner became involved in ownership initially through the Little Red Feather partnership and later owned a few horses trained by Mike Pender. As he considered a career as a trainer earlier this decade, Lerner hung around Pender’s stable more frequently, learning the nuances of racing. “It took a lot of time,” Lerner said. “I spent a lot of time to learn the ins and outs. I wanted to do everything.” As a trainer, Lerner had his first starter in April 2017 at Santa Anita. His first win came with the $12,500 claimer Be a Lady at Del Mar in August of that year. She was his 10th starter and was claimed that day. Lerner finished 2017 with five wins from 31 runners. Last summer, the stable grew to 15 runners. For 2018, Lerner won nine races from 74 starters. For Del Mar, there are high hopes for Lerner runners Ippodamia’s Girl, who is scheduled to start in Friday’s $85,000 Osunitas Stakes for fillies and mares on turf, and Queen Bee to You, who is slated to run in the $150,000 Solana Beach for statebred fillies and mares on turf Aug. 9. Lerner took over the training of Queen Bee to You and a few other runners from Pender when Pender was suspended last month by the California Horse Racing Board for a horse welfare issue. Most of Pender’s horses were dispersed to other trainers. With the larger stable, Lerner has found additional responsibility. “We went from six to 15 and that was easy to manage,” he said. “We went from 22 to 40 in a matter of a month. That was difficult to manage.” As the stable has developed, Lerner has leaned on former trainer Jenine Sahadi for advice. Sahadi, who works during race meetings in the Del Mar racing office, is best known for winning the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in 1996 and 1997, and the Santa Anita Derby in 2000. “I talk to her almost every day,” Lerner said. “She’s such a good trainer. I run things by her. It’s nice to have someone to talk things through.” Lerner had his 11th birthday the day before The Deputy’s win in the 2000 Santa Anita Derby. Lerner and Sahadi met when the young trainer visited the racing office and needed assistance. “We started chatting and became friends,” Sahadi said Saturday. “He’s a really good kid. “He’s very respectful and eager to learn. If he doesn’t know something, he asks.” At the time, Lerner was unaware of Sahadi’s success in the late 1990s and early 2000s. “He told me, ‘I Googled you,’ ” Sahadi said. “’You’re really famous.’ ” On Wednesday’s opening day, Lerner has entered I Want One in a $50,000 claimer for California-bred maiden 2-year-old fillies, and Rocky Policy in an allowance race with a $40,000 claimer at five furlongs on turf. Rocky Policy is on the also-eligible list. I Want One is owned by Erik Johnson of the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, who has become increasingly active in racing in the last few years. For Johnson and co-owner Bill Strauss, Lerner will train Salsa Bella, who was bought at a horses in training sale in Kentucky earlier this month for $127,000 by David Meah of Meah-Lloyd Bloodstock with the intent of starting her at Del Mar. Salsa Bella was second in the Grade 3 Sweetest Chant Stakes at Gulfstream Park in February 2018. She is the sort of horse Lerner hopes to have more of in his stable. “It’s been a lot of hard work and I’ve put a lot of hours in this,” he said. “I’m starting to get the opportunity to train better horses. I want to do this.”