OffTrackBetting.com - Del Mar Racetrack will present 41 stakes events during its 36-day season worth a total of $7.3 million, highlighted by the seaside course’s ‘piece de resistance’ – the $1-million Pacific Classic, scheduled for Saturday, August 19. The track’s 78th summer gathering alongside the blue Pacific will take place from Friday, July 19 through Labor Day Monday, September 4.

The robust Del Mar stakes program is expected to take on extra significance this year with the 34th edition of the Breeders' Cup headed to the seaside track for the first time as part of its fall session. Horsemen from around the country are expected to take advantage of the summer races as likely "preps" for their runners who are being pointed for any of the 13 championship events that will be held on Friday, November 3 and Saturday, November 4.

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Overall, the track will offer 33 advertised stakes carrying purses from $100,000 to $1,000,000, as well as eight "overnight" stakes, each worth $75,000. The advertised stakes include 21 graded events - six of them Grade I, 11 at Grade II and four at Grade III.

The Pacific Classic, run at a mile and a quarter for 3-year-olds and up, was listed as the second-best race in the world in 2016 in the Longines' awards presented by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities after Horse of the Year California Chrome beat a stellar lineup in handy fashion. In 2017 it will headline a stakes triple-header afternoon that also will offer the Grade I, $300,000 Del Mar Oaks and the Grade II, $250,000 Del Mar Handicap. The Oaks, for 3-year-old fillies, is run at nine furlongs, while the Handicap, an 11-furlong marathon, is for 3-year-olds and up. Both of those races will be contested over the Jimmy Durante Turf Course.

19 of the stakes will be run on the grass with the other 22 on the main track. The turf course was expanded and totally replaced prior to the 2014 season, while the main track was returned to dirt (after an eight-year run with the synthetic Polytrack) in 2015.

"For the most part, this is the traditional Del Mar stakes schedule that's been a popular presentation for us for the last decade," said the track's racing secretary, David Jerkens. "Our horsemen know it and like it; our fans do, too. It's a case of a perfect racetrack axiom: you stick with a winner."

As in previous summer seasons, 5 of Del Mar's key stakes have been scheduled as Breeders' Cup "Win and You're In" races, meaning a victory in any of them will guarantee the winning horse an entry - with all fees paid - in a corresponding Breeders' Cup divisional race, along with a travel bonus if the horse is based outside California. One of the "Win and You're In" races is the Pacific Classic, which guarantees admission to the $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic. Besides the $600,000 winner's share of the purse, the victorious G1 Pacific Classic horse also has his or her pre-entry and entry fees to the BC Classic covered - a savings of $150,000 - as well as a travel bonus - either $10,000 (national) or $40,000 (international) - granted to a Breeders' Cup horse (coming from outside California) for the capstone event of the Breeders' Cup programs.

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Besides the Pacific Classic, Del Mar's other stakes with direct Breeders' Cup ties are the $300,000, Grade I Bing Crosby Stakes on Saturday, July 29 (guaranteeing admission to the Breeders' Cup Sprint); $300,000, Grade I Clement L. Hirsch Stakes on Sunday, July 30 (BC Distaff); the Del Mar Handicap (BC Turf), and the Grade II, $200,000 Pat O'Brien Stakes for 3-year-olds and up at seven furlongs on Saturday, August 26 (BC Dirt Mile).

Del Mar will present its two championship races for 2-year-old on its Labor Day weekend. The pair of Grade I headliners - the Del Mar Debutante for fillies on Saturday, September 2 and the Del Mar Futurity on closing day, Monday, September 4 - are run at seven furlongs and carry purses of $300,000.

Del Mar has returned to its traditional Wednesday opening this year and will race five-days-per-week (Wednesday through Sunday) for the entire summer, finishing with a six-day week concluding on the Labor Day Monday holiday. Post time throughout the session will be the normal 2 p.m. with the exception of Fridays ("Four O'Clock Fridays") when the first race goes off at 4 p.m. for the first five of those days, then at 3:30 p.m. for the last two (August 25 and September 1).

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2017 Del Mar Racetrack Stakes Schedule