Del Mar Season Opens Today on Cautious Note : Seaside Track Has the Horses, but State of California Now Has the Lottery

One thing that usually comes with the Del Mar racing season is the celebration of Bill Shoemaker’s birthday. Shoemaker, who rode his 950th stakes winner last Saturday at Louisiana Downs, will turn 55 on Aug. 19, a non-racing day.

Another thing that had become a certainty at Del Mar was an increase in business. Del Mar, once considered a spare part on the thoroughbred circuit that was dominated by Santa Anita and Hollywood Park, had such steady growth that by last year the oceanside track ranked behind only a few others in daily average attendance and handle.

The last two years, however, Del Mar ran into problems. In 1984, the Olympic Games detracted from business and Del Mar failed to improve on its previous year’s figures for the first time since 1968.

Last year, in late August, the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service raided the Del Mar backstretch, taking into custody 123 illegal aliens who were working there, and causing an estimated 600 others to flee.

The disruption resulted in the loss of one racing day, when protesting trainers refused to enter horses, and took the momentum out of the rest of the season. Nevertheless, Del Mar registered modest gains and returned to the attendance and betting levels that it enjoyed in 1983. Last year’s average crowd of 19,700 bet $3.5 million.

This year, as Del Mar opens its 47th season at 2 p.m. today with a nine-race program, there are no Olympics. A stopgap solution--temporary work visas--has been reached on the alien problem, and the barns here are bursting with an inordinate number of accomplished horses.

So why isn’t Joe Harper, the general manager of Del Mar, smiling?

Because Harper is wary.

For one thing, Del Mar will be running for the first time since the start of the California lottery, which has been become a bugbear for the Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and Los Alamitos race meetings.

“The lottery people are coming up with a new game,” Harper says. “They’ve got something like $200 million to promote it. Our advertising budget is around $500,000.”

For another thing, Del Mar’s 43-day season will be running against a quarter horse meeting at Hollywood Park, which opens Friday night, and another harness season will begin in early August at Los Alamitos.

Harper estimates that 40% of Del Mar’s business comes from Los Angeles and Orange counties.

“These things could have an impact on how well we do,” Harper said. “I know we’ve got a lot of good horses here this year. I hope they stay sound, because we’ll need them.”

Some of the horses that figure to run at Del Mar include John Henry, Ferdinand, Melair, Zoffany, Estrapade and Dontstop Themusic, all established stakes winners. Other standouts such as Tasso, Mountain Bear, Nostalgia’s Star and Silveyville, who have not done much lately, will attempt comebacks here. Silveyville is being prepared by trainer Bruce Headley for his annual return from a season of stud duty.

Del Mar, which races every day but Tuesday through Sept. 10, is offering approximately $8 million in purses, about $2.3 million of that amount going to 29 stakes races. The major races are the Ramona Handicap on Sept. 7 and the Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 10, and the richest race is the $300,000 Del Mar Handicap on Sept. 1. The Del Mar Handicap, a dirt race for the last 10 years, will be run on the turf course, which has been widened by 12 feet and is now banked on both turns.

Today’s opening-day stake is one of Del Mar’s lesser attractions, the $50,000 Oceanside at a mile on the grass for 3-year-olds. With no standout among the nine horses entered, the stakes-winning Prince Bobby B. and Full of Stars, who ran third in the recent Cinema Handicap at Hollywood Park, are likely to draw most of the attention.

The Oceanside might not be much of a race, but because it’s opening day at Del Mar, a crowd of 25,000 or more is expected. For a day, Joe Harper will be smiling.