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.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Jockey Chris DeCarlo on Wednesday will ride his first race in nearly 10 months when he climbs aboard Blue Chips Only for Osvaldo Rojas in a $14,000 claiming race that goes as the sixth. DeCarlo has not ridden since Sept. 21.

DeCarlo suffered a broken foot and a torn labrum in his right shoulder while guiding a filly from the barn of trainer Robert Falcone to the track for a workout.

“She reared up and ran backwards, and she slipped on the pavement and landed on me,” DeCarlo recalled.

ELMONT, N.Y. – With Saratoga on the horizon, jockeys Irad Ortiz Jr. and Joel Rosario have dropped appeals of suspensions and will miss a few days this week.

Ortiz, who suffered a contusion of his right hand in a spill last Friday – a mount he picked after Rajiv Maragh went down – began serving five days Sunday. He will miss racing Wednesday and Thursday and be back Friday. Ortiz was suspended for a careless-riding incident in the first race June 26.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Rajiv Maragh, who suffered multiple fractures in his back in a spill at Belmont Park last Friday, will be out a minimum of six months, according to his father, Collin.

Rajiv Maragh will remain hospitalized until later this week with four fractured vertebrae and two broken ribs as well as a punctured lung. The injuries occurred during Belmont’s fifth race last Friday, when Maragh’s mount, Yourcreditisgood, clipped heels with Mini Muffin. Under Ruben Silvera, Mini Muffin drifted into the path of Yourcreditisgood, who went down and hurled Maragh to the ground.