Jim Byers will call the races for the final week of the Lone Star meet, which runs from Thursday night through Sunday afternoon. John Lies, the regular announcer at Lone Star, has left for Del Mar to serve as simulcast host during the Southern California meet that starts Thursday.

“It’s going home,” said Lies, who was raised in the San Diego, Calif., area.

Lies, 38, has served as simulcast host for Del Mar since 2007. In addition to Lone Star, he is the track announcer for Kentucky Downs and Will Rogers Downs.

When the 3-year-old War Story fell $4,000 short of reaching his $549,000 reserve at the recent Fasig-Tipton July horses of racing age sale in Lexington, Ky., it hardly upset the horse’s Dallas-based co-owner, Ron Paolucci.

“I didn’t know if I wanted to sell him or not,” Paolucci said Tuesday. “I thought if somebody wants him, they’re going to have to pay a premium for him.”

DEL MAR, Calif. – Tuesday morning marked the first time horses could get on the Del Mar grass course this summer, and it had plenty of activity, with 31 workouts, including by Bronzo and Winning Prize, both of whom are being considered by trainer Neil Drysdale for the $400,000 Eddie Read Stakes on Saturday, the first Grade 1 race of the meet.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Thursday’s opening day of the highly anticipated Del Mar summer meeting marks the completion of a hectic 10-day span when the racetrack property is transformed from the home of the San Diego County Fair to the venue of the most popular race meeting in the West.

Track officials hope the hectic moments will be over when racing starts with a raucous roar from a crowd of more than 40,000 at 2 p.m. Pacific. Last summer, there were few quiet times in a meeting plagued by a troubled turf course, horse injuries, and a downturn in business.

Only the venue has changed this summer for Flavien Prat, the 22-year-old jockey.

Like last year, Prat is riding at a seaside resort track, has top mounts in important races, and has the goal of building on recent success.

Last year, all that occurred at Deauville, on the northwest coast of France. This year, he is based at Del Mar for the first time. If the first six months of this year are any indication, Prat should have a memorable summer.

Another promising filly from the north is en route to South Florida.

Come to Mischief, winner of the $125,000 My Dear Stakes in her career debut last month at Woodbine, has been purchased privately in a deal that was finalized on Tuesday, according to her new owner, Ron Paolucci. She will be shipped to Gulfstream Park and be trained by Peter Walder.

“I’ve had luck with buying 2-year-old fillies out of Canada this time of year,” said Paolucci in reference to Ria Antonia.

DEL MAR, Calif. – On the surface of things, there’s quite a few changes afoot – and underfoot – at Del Mar.

For the first time since 2006, this track will race on dirt, the controversial Polytrack era having ended after the fall meeting last November. And the infield turf course, newly installed prior to last summer’s meeting, has grown thicker and hardier.

So, Del Mar launches into this meet Thursday with management equal parts hoping and believing that both developments will result in the safest racing possible.

DEL MAR, Calif. – American Pharoah, the Triple Crown winner, on Tuesday morning had his first tour of the Del Mar track since last summer, but he’ll see plenty more of this place, which is expected to be his home for most of the summer.

At the least, American Pharoah will do the bulk of his serious training here in preparation for the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Aug. 2, scheduled to be his first start since his victory in the Belmont Stakes on June 6.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Bing Crosby was a co-founder of Del Mar. Joe Harper, grandson of Cecil B. DeMille, runs the place now. A track with long-standing ties to the movie business, Del Mar has served as a preview of coming attractions in recent years, never more so than last year, when American Pharoah won the Del Mar Futurity, giving a hint of what was to come.

CYPRESS, Calif. – Los Alamitos ended its summer Thoroughbred meeting Sunday with a 12.7 percent increase in all-sources handle but a decline in attendance and ontrack handle compared with the corresponding meeting in 2014. The meet began July 2.