Opening day at Del Mar attracts many who really don’t frequent races

Understanding the success of opening day at Del Mar is recognizing that it’s the most important day in California racing for people who don’t care about horse racing.

The 77^th opener for the seaside track came with the usual selection of accepted annoyances of long lines at the betting windows, bathrooms, concession stands, parking lots and a multi-mile back-up on the 5 Freeway at the Via de la Valle exit.

Before the first race, the crowd was eight deep around the paddock, hoping, straining to get a glimpse of one of the 10 horses set to go in the one-mile opener. There was a buzz as if Nyquist, Exaggerator, California Chrome and a reincarnated Mr. Ed were running against each other for more than a million bucks.

Instead, what you had was a claiming race of horses that you could buy for $12,500. That’s 1/32nd of the purchase price of Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist, and he was considered a steal at $400,000.

As Trevor Denman called the horses to the starting gate, arms and phones shot in the air as if they were recording an event of historic proportions.

The fact the first race is a mile is not a coincidence. It allows a start right in front of the main concourse where the line of people fills the entire area between rail and back wall. Sometimes having all the action in front of you is not such a good thing, as some discovered as the day went on.

Friday’s attendance was announced as 42,562, the largest horse racing crowd in California this year.

“We always put the first race at a mile in front of the crowd and it’s a great crowd as you know,” said Joe Harper, president at chief executive at the track. “There is just something special about opening day.”

Harper was down in the winner’s circle area before the first race, shaking hands with employees and making sure everything was going well. His level of concentration was such he almost stepped in front of the ambulance that trails the field in case of a spill.

“It’s more like a sigh [of relief],” he said of what it was like to have the first race of the season behind him. “It’s like getting the first olive out of that jar, you’ll try to get it for a while and hopefully the rest will come a little easier.”

The success of opening day is really all about throwing a party for people who don’t follow the horses.

Taking a cue from the Kentucky Derby, a hat contest becomes the centerpiece where strangers often take pictures of each other.

Nadia Dayzie, of Oceanside, was a frequent target of cellphones with her almost four-foot combination of insulation foam and Styrofoam, made to look like a celebration of summer but worn as a hat. It weighs 15 pounds and had to be held in place by at least one hand at all times or “the wind will attack me.”

“I really wanted to inspire others and I also wanted to challenge myself,” she said of her motivation for the hat. “I have a lot of artistic abilities in my family and I really wanted this opportunity to show and put my best foot forward.”

Dayzie admits this being her only annual trip to the track, but promises to come back.

“I really want to see a whole race and bet on a horse,” Dayzie said.

The clientele on opening day is also heavily female. The common theme seems to be dresses and drinking, with the idea to have too little of one and too much of the other.

“You wonder why they can’t do this at other tracks around the country,” said trainer Doug O’Neill after saddling two horses in the second race. “I think some tracks are starting to do better. They need to take a page out of the Del Mar book. It’s pretty wonderful.”

By the fourth race, the mostly female line at one of the tequila bars was 22 deep, times two. The line at the women’s restroom was much shorter, something that biologically would reverse itself as the day continued.

The upbeat tenor of such a day can be undone in a moment, as was what happened in the sixth race when Presidential Air broke down at the top of the stretch in front of a sizable part of the crowd.

The sometimes horrifying realities of the sport were in full view as the 3-year-old filly rose to her feet and staggered with only three working legs. She went back to the ground as two men came running with the green tarp that tracks use to shield the crowd from the horse’s impending death and subsequent loading onto a van.

After that race the crowd thinned only slightly and the buzz quieted only a bit. By the time the eighth race, the featured Oceanside Stakes won by Monster Bea with Gary Stevens aboard, it was as if the tragedy of two races earlier were forgotten.

And so, another opening day at Del Mar was in the books and the track will return to the people who actually follow the sport.

john.cherwa@latimes.com