Hit The Road Takes Oceanside On Del Mar Opening Day; Despite Empty Stands, Handle Increases

European veteran Umberto Rispoli made his Del Mar debut a notable one by winning three races – including the featured Runhappy Oceanside Stakes – as the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club kicked off its 2020 season with nary a fan in the stands at the seaside track in Del Mar, Calif..

The shore oval began its 81st season in fine fashion on the racetrack and in the counting house, but it surely missed its usual crowd of 40,000 or so party goers who traditionally make the opener a love-in as they welcome racing back to San Diego.

“We're racing and we're going to continue to race this summer,” said DMTC's CEO, Joe Harper. “We'd love to have our fans, of course, but we're delighted to be racing.”

Rispoli, the 31-year-old Italian rider who has made a serious impact in the riding scene in Southern California in the past year, saved ground nicely with his More Than Ready colt Hit the Road, then when a slight hole opened turning for home on the Del Mar turf course, gunned him through the middle and went on to tally impressively by a length and three quarters.

The Kentucky-bred is owned by Daniel Koetteing's D K Racing, Kyle Yost's Taste of Victory Stables and Rick Gold and is trained by Dan Blacker.

Hit the Road, the 8-5 favorite in the Runhappy Oceanside, paid $5.20, $3.60 and $2.80 across the board.

Second was Wertheimer & Frere's Kandrel ($13.20 and $8.60), while Peter Redekop's Ajourneytofreedom ran third ($9.40). The splits were  :22.82, :47.41, 1:11.71, 1:23.70 and 1:35.09.

Del Mar's total handle on the 10-race card was $15,346,805, a 3.54% increase over 2019's Opening Day total of $14,821,720.

The overall racing was highly competitive (seven of the 10 races called for photo finishes to decide the winner) and cleanly run. The good start to the 28-day session bodes well for more good racing to follow on the track's Friday-Saturday-Sunday weekly schedule leading up to a Labor Day Monday (September 7) finale.

First post daily will be at 2 p.m.


UMBERTO RISPOLI (Hit the Road, winner) – “I think Dan (trainer Dan Blacker) has done a terrific job with this horse. He ran a very, very good race today. He broke really well and so I could take the rail. I had a lot of horse; more horse than I thought. Maybe I could have won this race by more. I love being in California; it feels like home. I'm working hard every day and having some results. Everyone told me about Del Mar and Opening Day, what a big deal it is. But we can't have the fans now; too bad. But right now I'm still loving Del Mar. It's a good day for me.”

DAN BLACKER (Hit the Road, winner) – “I'm just thrilled to win a big race on opening day at Del Mar. The Oceanside is like my Kentucky Derby. It's unfortunate that there were no fans, but that's the way things are. Umberto (Rispoli) ran a faultless race and the horse is super talented. You can put him on the lead or take him back and Umberto put him in a perfect spot.”


FRACTIONS:  :22.82  :47.41  1:11.71  1:23.70  1:35.09

The victory by Rispoli was his first stakes win at Del Mar.

The victory by Blacker is his second stakes win at Del Mar and first in the Runhappy Oceanside.

The winner is owned by D K Racing (Daniel Koetteing of San Diego), Taste of Victory Stables (Kyle Yost of Middletown, MD) and Rick Gold.

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Beat Ray Every Day At Del Mar: And You Can Do It … For FREE!

With apologies to the late actor and horseplayer Mickey Rooney, I lost $20 on my first visit to Del Mar in 1979 and spent the next 41 years trying to win it back.

Maybe in appreciation of that dedication, along with the “taking one for the team” selfless attitude that has kept me coming back to the Southern California seaside track every year, my so-called friends at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club hoodwinked invited me to be the sucker centerpiece for an online contest that begins today and runs each day throughout the summer meet ending on Labor Day, Sept. 7.

Here's the deal.

It's free to play. Sign up here. Now. All you have to do is bet a mythical $100 each day on the selected contest race in win, place or show bets on any horse or horses. You can read the specific rules here.

If, at the end of the summer meet, you wind up with the highest bankroll of your accumulated bets, you'll win two VIP tickets to the 2021 Breeders' Cup at Del Mar. There are other prizes for top 10 finishers and anyone who has a higher bankroll than me at the end of the meet (dream on!) will be entered into a drawing for additional prizes.

Anyone who can beat me, given my decades of losing playing Del Mar, will own the deserved title of Beach Boss.

To make things more humiliating for me interesting, Del Mar is enlisting some celebrity handicappers to see if they have what it takes to out-handicap me. Every Saturday  at 11 a.m. PT on Del Mar's social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube), I'll join television host Michelle Yu and and a guest handicapper for some friendly conversation and analysis of the day's contest race. First up this week is Larry Collmus, who is subbing for longtime track announcer Trevor Denman this summer. Thankfully, they've thrown me a patsy on this first week.

I'm going into this petrified brimming with confidence that all these years of experience are going to pay off. Bring it on!

 

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