Hit the Road © Benoit Photo
Del Mar will return to action this Friday for what figures to be a most unusual season – one with horses high stepping, but fans nowhere to be found. The seaside oval that will be presenting its 81st summer get together normally has a massive celebratory crowd on hand for its opener, but the nasty virus that is sweeping the land won’t allow for that this year.
Still, Del Mar will present 28 days of racing between July 10 and Labor Day, September 7 starting off with a nice 10-race card highlighted by the traditional Opening Day special – the Runhappy Oceanside Stakes. Many fans will turn to their computers or the TVG network to watch a dozen sophomores match up at a mile on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course with a $100,000 purse on the line.
Del Mar’s new morning line maker, John Lies, has tabbed D K Racing and Taste of Victory Stable’s Hit the Road as a lukewarm favorite at 7/2. The More Than Ready colt has won three of six starts, was a stakes winner on turf last year and looks primed to fire a good shot for trainer Dan Blacker. Umberto Rispoli rides.
His chief competition appears to be Slam Dunk Racing or Nentwig’s El Tigre Terrible, also a stakes winner on turf, who will have the saddle services of last year’s Del Mar riding champ Flavien Prat. Others likely to draw action in the turfer are My Racehorsecom or Spendthrift Farm’s Tizamagician and K P All Systems Go, who runs in the silks of Karl Pergola.
Here’s the field in post position order:
Rookie Mistake (Mario Gutierrez up); El Tigre Terrible; Howbeit (Evin Roman); I’m Leaving You (Geovanni Franco); Kanderel (Juan Hernandez); K P All Systems Go; Hit the Road; Tizamagician; Ajourneytofreedom (Ricky Gonzalez); Silardi (Ruben Fuentes); Heywood Beach (Jose Valdivia, Jr.), and Margot’s Boy (Drayden Van Dyke).
The Oceanside will be the first of 38 stakes offered during the stand. It is the first stepping stone in the track’s 3-year-old grass trilogy, followed by the Grade III, $125,000 La Jolla Handicap on Sunday, August 9 and the Grade II, $200,000 Del Mar Derby on Sunday, September 6.
Racing will be conducted on a Friday-Saturday-Sunday basis throughout the stand that then finishes with the Monday Labor Day card. First post daily for all cards will be 2 p.m.