Charity on the Right Track With a Day at the Races

Social folks are traveling up and down the coast in summer’s passion for escape. Directors of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club John C. Mabee (president), Clement L. Hirsch, Joe Harper and Stewart Bowie are among those inviting pals to the July 26 Del Mar opening of thoroughbred racing.

The racing charity days are jam-packed. Social Service Auxiliary of San Diego, headed by Sally McClenahan of La Jolla, goes to the races July 27 with a batch of hostesses: Kay Wall, Dot Herrick, Marjorie Edmunds, Jean Hope, Jo Brady, Margaret Maund.

Then, Country Friends host 500 at the track July 31 with Connie McNally of El Cajon and Jean Newman of Escondido, with proceeds to go to the Salvation Army.

HIT BIT: Day Nursery Artisan Auxiliary hosts its sixth annual Golden Mallet Invitational Polo Tournament with pageantry and an alfresco luncheon today in Carpinteria. Gloria Holden and her daughter Geannie Holden Sheller are talking about chukkers. In fact, the auxiliary committee has been educating friends on polo etymology. A game of polo is divided into six seven-minute chukkers (a period of play) and a 10-to-15-minute halftime, plus a 30-second overtime.

AGENDA: Couturier Oscar de la Renta will appear for Saks Fifth Avenue on Monday evening at Hotel Bel-Air to honor the UCLA Art Council, which is restaging its incredible Thieves Market on Oct. 27-28 in a giant hangar at Santa Monica Airport Center. The hangar is being crammed with collectibles by Marian Nandel and Muriel Simkin and cohorts.

TOP OF THE TOP: Mix hugs and kisses with shrimp, chili and Caesar salad, stir in 400 well-wishers, every TV cameraman in Los Angeles. Bump Pasadena against Hollywood, with guests from Penny Bianchi to Barry Diller. Sift in offspring--Tawnia, Chelsea and Cody Cannell. And, oh, yes, Marcia and Stephen J. Cannell--crown them with stars and halos. That was the 10th anniversary of Stephen J. Cannell Productions Inc. the other night at Chasen’s.

What a crowd: Brandon Tartikoff, Warren Littlefield, Dr. George and Mary Regas, Gabriella and Dr. John Santaniello, Michael Lansbury, Juanita Barrett, Ben Vereen, Dan and Joni Baker, Joseph and Carolyn Cannell, Connie Selleca, Susan Dey, Barbara and Howard Golden.

Said Cannell: “The first year I sort of felt like a dog that had wandered onto the freeway. . . . You can’t measure success in Nielsen ratings and numbers of shows on the air. You can only measure in friends. So many of you here held our hands when our son, Derek, died. I learned so much about what friendships really mean.” (The Cannells’ teen-age son died in an accident eight years ago.)

MEDICIS. At the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual Medici Awards evening, guests circled around the Exposition Park lily pond in early twilight and smelled the roses. Then it was on to the California Museum of Science and Industry terrace for William M. Clossey’s party, Caroline Ahmanson’s (she’s the dinner founder) Summary of the Arts in Los Angeles and the awards.

Then followed Somerset Caterers’ splendid feast. Actor Richard Thomas presented the awards to All Nippon Airways, Anheuser-Busch Co., Bullock’s Department Store and Eastman Kodak. Prominent in the crowd were John and Liz Argue, Koji Yamashita, Mary Rock, Ray Remy and Wallace Smith.

BREEZY PACE: Friends of Suzanne Marx, who has given her all to raise funds for the Nancy Reagan Drug Center (Diane Disney Miller recently gave another $100,000), is just back from son Jason’s graduation from Princeton. She’s to be honored at a cocktail buffet Wednesday evening at the home of Dr. and Mr. Kurt Wagner by Kathie Wagner, Liz Lewis, Poppy Paulos, Sharon Takiff and Tina Brackenbush. . . .

Security Pacific Bank hosted a cocktail reception at Sotheby’s in Beverly Hills to launch the Summer Auction of Jewelry West to be held Monday at 10:15 a.m. and 2 p.m. at the Regent Beverly Wilshire.