A good Del Mar summer meeting got even better for its horsemen this
week as the track sent out checks totaling $1,370,000 that represented a
retroactive payment of 10% on overnight purses by Del Mar Thoroughbred
Club. The sum is a record payment of its kind for the track.
Aided by its highest-ever overnight purses, an increase in field size
and a steady betting agenda throughout its 37-day season, the seaside
track finished up its summer with more than $430-million pushed through
the betting wickets for a daily average of over $11.6-million.
“Given the uncertainty of the horse inventory, we had some concerns
coming into the meet” noted DMTC’s executive vice president for racing
and racing secretary, Tom Robbins. “But we put some things in place to
deal with the situation and the response was excellent. When you can
have the kind of meet we had despite the problems that exist in our
business, it is a tribute to all involved – horsemen, track staff and
our racing fans.”
Among the adaptations the track instituted was its unique “Ship and
Win” program, which paid incentives and bonuses to those importing
horses from out-of-state to run at the meet. The program drew more than
100 horses to the session with many of them racing more than once,
helping to boost field size from 8.2 in 2010 to 8.4.
For the 2011 meet, Del Mar paid out overall purses of $630,000 per
day, a record for the track and nearly 14% higher than the total offered
during the 2010 session. Its overnight purses alone in 2011 increased
by 22% from the previous season and were the highest offered by any
track in the country.
The track’s 72nd summer season had several other additional high
points to it that included a business-positive resurgence at the
claiming box that saw 246 horses haltered for nearly $6-milllion
following a summer where those totals previously read 141 claims for
$3.6-million; the introduction of a .50¢ Players Pick 5 bet that became
one of the favorite wagers at the session and a $50,000 carryover
“seeding” of the Pick Six pool on Sundays that pumped up the handle on
the popular exotic wager by 15% and led to several husky next-day
carryovers; and the presentation of a campy “Battle of the Exes” match
race between formerly engaged riders Mike Smith and Chantal Sutherland
that drew a huge response from both local and national media and an
estimated extra 4,000 fans to the track.
Del Mar also outdid itself once more with its Opening Day crowd and
surrounding extravaganza when a single-day record 46,588 piled through
the gates of July 20, ensuring that first-day attendance at the shore
oval rose for the seventh straight year. Those Opening Day numbers tied
into the track’s overall increase in attendance since the turn of the
century. In 2000, Del Mar averaged 14,252 fans per afternoon on track.
The 2011 daily average of 17,844 means that number has increased by
approximately 25%.