DEL MAR, Calif.— Field sizes are up, “Ship & Win” numbers are up, the number of races is up. All good signs for Del Mar and racing secretary David Jerkens as we embark on week six of the summer meet.
“We’re very happy with the product,” Jerkens says. “We haven’t skipped a beat yet which is a testament to the support we’ve been receiving.”
Field sizes overall are at 9.20 after 19-days of racing, which included 180 races and 1,656 horses. With two big weekends still to come, Labor Day weekend and the TVG Pacific Classic and then closing weekend with the Del Mar Futurity, the chances field sizes stay above nine appear very good.
“Knock on wood, the undercard for the Pacific Classic should do well,” Jerkens says. “As we get to the end of the meet, as we’ve experienced, you’ll see a little bit more demand. If you look at past history we’ve gotten through the period that shows a little bit of a slowdown and typically the end of the meet, the last opportunity to run at Del Mar, we see an influx of entries. So hopefully, fingers crossed, that’ll be the same case this year.”
Finishing the year with field sizes exceeding nine hasn’t happened at Del Mar in a long time.
“We’ve been around 8.8, which is a big number compared to the rest of the industry,” said Jerkens. “8.5 – that’s kind of the standard. My goal has always been eight and a half.”
Last year field sizes at this time were 8.54.
Another indicator of a healthy horse population is an increase in the number of races run and so far there have been 10 more races run at Del Mar compared to last year at this time. Five on the turf and five on the dirt.
“Ship & Win” numbers are on pace to set records for the program, used to entice out-of-town operations to ship their horses to Del Mar, with bonuses for horses starting for the first time at Del Mar. 169 horses have qualified for “S&W,” that’s compared to the 134 qualifiers from a year ago. 25 of those horses have won.
“We’ve had a nice influx from out-of-state,” Jerkens says. “Typically by week six a lot of the “Ship & Win” horses have already started but you may see a newer influx of horses for the stakes races and you may see some who couldn’t find a race earlier in the meet. We can still expect to be over 200.”
Another nice surprise this year has been the success of the Maiden Dirt Bonus Program, meant to encourage trainers with bonus money. To date, 71 maidens have been awarded the bonus money and 10 have won.
“We’re trying to push a purse of $100,000 in any maiden dirt allowance race,” Jerkens says, “and we’ve added the bonus to maiden $62-five claimer and above. It’s just another tool that trainers can utilize to try to build up their inventory. The goal is to have more young horses in the population that trickles into all different categories. It’s hard to compare the impact but we are seeing field size increases in maiden dirt races that’s definitely due to the program”
1,415 horses have made at least one start at the meet that concludes on September 11.
DMTC Press Release
Photo: Del Mar paddock (Benoit Photo)
