Del Mar

Del Mar means "by the sea", and the origin of the name can be traced back to Ella Loop who had previously given the name to the tent city on the beach that she and her husband, Theodore, established in the early 1880s. Theodore Loop was a contractor and engineer for the California Southern Railroad that began passing through the Del Mar area in 1882. The town began to grow when Theodore joined up with Jacob Taylor, and the two began selling 50x140 foot lots in the midst of a land boom. Howard and Lyons, a development firm, began developing area to the east and south of Del Mar, but were unsuccessful when the land boom ended in the late 1880's.

The growth of the city stalled until the South Coast Land Company bought the vacant land and built a resort with the Stratford Inn being the centerpiece. Over the years, Del Mar grew and finally received electricity from San Diego Gas and Electric in the late 1920s. It was at this time that Del Mar started developing its residential areas.

It wasn't until 1958 that Del Mar residents began to debate whether the area should stay as a county of San Diego, become part of the City of San Diego, or attempt independence through incorporation. In 1959, residents chose incorporation and established a five-member City Council.

Today, the City of Del Mar is two square miles of coastal land with a population of about 5000. The main attraction of visitors is still the beach and sunny weather. Of course, the annual Del Mar Fair and the well-known Del Mar Racetrack bring in people from the surrounding area and beyond.

The History of Del Mar Racetrack


Source: Del Mar Scene

See also Del Mar Race Track

On the sunny afternoon of July 3, 1937, the original laid-back Californian himself, Bing Crosby, stood at a turnstile collecting tickets for his new seaside racetrack, Del Mar. Having been bitten by the racing bug, Crosby and a bunch of his Hollywood buddies (among them Pat O’Brien, Oliver Hardy and Gary Cooper) hatched the idea for a horse palace by the ocean where you could play all day, party all night and leave the cares of the world behind.

The group’s first meeting took place at Warner Brothers studios in Burbank where the Del Mar Turf Club was formed. From the start, Hollywood fingerprints were all over this racetrack. That first day, more than 15,000 came for a look. Word got around fast because there were more than 18,000 on hand by the second afternoon. The Hollywood connection continued for decades at Del Mar (halted only by a three-year shutdown of racing during World War II) with a parade of show biz personalities including Mickey Rooney, Ava Gardner, Dick Powell, Joan Blondell, Edward G. Robinson, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz and Jimmy Durante.

The Santa Fe Railroad launched a special racetrack train from Los Angeles to Del Mar that carried Hollywood stars and, at times, late-running horses. The party started on the train. If the train was late, the races were delayed. It became a Del Mar tradition for the fans in the grandstand to start cheering when they saw the train turn the bend just before the station. Bing’s relaxed attitude about life carried over to the racetrack. The track’s longtime publicist Eddie Read was quoted as saying: “This is where nobody’s in a hurry but the horses.” Out on the track itself, Del Mar had its share of magic moments. Drawing on its Hollywood contacts, the plant was the first to make use of the photo-finish camera at its inaugural meet in 1937. The camera, an invention of Lorenzo del Riccio, an optical engineer who headed Paramount Pictures’ technical research laboratories, was designed to produce a strip photograph of the passage of time at a fixed point – in this case the finish line.

Today, just about every racetrack in the world uses the technology. In 1938, Del Mar hosted the historic match race between the American handicap champion Seabiscuit and the South American import Ligaroti. The race pitted Bing Crosby and Lin Howard against Lin’s father, Charles S. Howard, famous owner of Seabiscuit and a director of the Del Mar Turf Club. It was a $25,000 winner-take-all contest that drew 20,000 to the track and was heard coast-to-coast. on the NBC radio network. At the end of a ferocious battle that saw the horses trading head bobs and the riders trading whip slashes, “The Biscuit” won by a nose in 1:49, breaking the nine-furlong track record by an amazing four seconds.

rode his 4,871 first-place finish to surpass the Englishman Sir Gordon Richards. Fourteen Labor Days later in 1970, Longden’s title of “winningest rider of all” fell to a tiny Texan named Bill Shoemaker when he booted home Dares J for his 6,033rd victory. There to shake The Shoe’s hand in the winner’s circle was Longden himself.

In recent times the track has become a fertile proving ground for many of the nation’s best horses and horsemen. Champions race at Del Mar each summer and they are trained by Hall of Fame conditioners with famous names like Bobby Frankel, D. Wayne Lukas, Ron McAnally, Richard Mandella and Neil Drysdale and ridden by Hall of Fame jockeys with names such as Mike Smith, Gary Stevens and Kent Desormeaux. In 1991, the track instituted its richest and most prestigious event ever, the $1,000,000 Pacific Classic. The Grade I feature run at the classic American distance of a mile and one quarter quickly became one of the country’s top summer prizes, annually drawing many of the best horses in training. It seems like everything and everybody needs an overhaul over time and in 1993 the track opened with a fully refurbished grandstand, an $80-million project that took two years to complete while racing continued.

The “new” Del Mar retained the look and many of the touches of the old facility, but with more space, 550,000 square feet to be exact, and more amenities. There are 4,700 more seats for a grand total of 14,300; 25 more bars for a grand total of 41; 20 more concession stands now totaling 36 and 750 pari-mutuel windows, up from 442. Del Mar is considered one of the jewels of the American racing scene. For the 2007 season, the track introduced Polytrack – an engineered racing surface that replaced its previous dirt main track. The new, $9-million racetrack is kinder and more consistent and therefore much safer for horse and rider. The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club (DMTC), a non-dividend paying corporation comprised of notable California owners and breeders, assumed operation of Del Mar through a 20-year lease with the state in 1970. That lease was subsequently renewed for another 20 years starting in 1990. When the DMTC began operations, the track’s daily handle was $1,985,807 and its daily attendance averaged 9,684. Under the DMTC’s reign, those numbers have risen by more than 500% in handle and nearly 200% in attendance. Of course, traditions evolve over time but one of the most reliable at Del Mar is that of wearing a hat on Opening Day. Back in the ‘30s, people wore hats every day.

Today, the track holds its annual One & Only Truly Fabulous Hat Contest. Even if they don’t participate in the contest, a majority of the crowd wears a hat on Opening Day. It’s just tradition. What’s remained constant since 1937 is the feeling that no matter who you are, one of the best places you can be on a sunny summer afternoon is at the Del Mar Racetrack, watching some of the most gifted horses and riders in the world try to reach the world try to reach the finish line first.