The track could point to many other positives throughout the 2021 year – the return of racing fans, exceptional purses for its horsemen, and hosting another record-setting Breeders' Cup among them. But the standard the track is proudest of is its continuing mark as America's safest major racetrack. Only one horse was injured catastrophically in the 426 races and 3,552 starters that performed during the two sessions, a mark that is unmatched in the country.

Total handle for the four-week, 13-day fall session was $171.58 million. The fall meet average daily handle was a record $13.19 million, which was 1.0% higher than the record average daily handle posted last year.

The Breeders' Cup – conducted at Del Mar on November 5 and 6 – had a common-pool handle of $183,260,127, a two-day record for the championship event.

When Del Mar last hosted the Breeders' Cup in 2017, it posted a then-record handle of $166,077,486. The new mark is 10.4% higher than that.

The two-meet mark of $943.49 million is 21.3% higher than the 2017 standard of $779.97 million. Both years featured Breeders' Cups.

Del Mar Thoroughbred Club's CEO, Joe Harper, said he was extremely pleased by events at his track over the year. “I am exceptionally proud of our team and seeing all their hard work come to such wonderful fruition over the course of the two seasons,” he said. “We put on a helluva Breeders' Cup show once again; we were at our best for the best. And we're safe, very safe. That's just the best of all.”

“The racing world once again got to see what we're spoiled with every year – one of the best operations in the industry,” said Gary Fenton, chairman of the Thoroughbred Owners. “Breeders' Cup kicked off another wonderful meet and we're so grateful for the entire DMTC team. TOC couldn't ask for a better partner.”

The track's Ship & Win program – where it encourages horsemen and horsewomen to bring their runners to Del Mar for both of its seasons and has proven to be one of the great thoroughbred magnets in the country – had another banner session. Sixty-seven new runners came to town this fall under the program with six of them making a second start during the Bing Crosby Season. All told, 1,885 “S&W” runners have come to California since the program was put in place 11 years ago.

Its fall Turf Festival again drew high-class runners from across the land to compete in its seven-race stand over the final weekend of the meet. More than a dozen stakes aces shipped in to take on the local runners in the rich events.

The track's fall riding king was Juan Hernandez with his 17 firsts from 79 mounts during the 15-day (counting the Breeders' Cup) session. It is his first riding title at Del Mar. The top trainer was Phil D'Amato who registered 15 firsts from 52 starters. It is his first fall training championship, but his third at the track overall.

Racing will return to Del Mar next July 22 for the track's 83rd summer season.

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A victory, or high placing, for Acclimate, Astronaut, or Rockemperor, would salve the sting of ill-starred efforts in the Breeders' Cup, in the case of Astronaut and Rockemperor after gaining entry through “Win and You're In” victories.

Astronaut rallied in the stretch for a half-length victory in the Del Mar Handicap at odds of 24-1 on Pacific Classic Day in August. Hall of Fame jockey Victor Espinoza found no clear path in the BC Turf, however, had to check hard before the quarter pole and finished 12th of 14. Rockemperor won the Turf Classic at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y., in October but was in tight quarters throughout in the BC Turf and finished eighth.

Acclimate, with one win and three narrow losses in graded events leading up to the BC Turf, was close to the pace early before fading to last.

The post position draw was scheduled this afternoon. The entrants, in alphabetical order: Acclimate (Ricky Gonzalez); Astronaut (Espinoza); Award Winner (Juan Hernandez); Cupid's Claws (Abel Cedillo); Friar's Road (Umberto Rispoli), Rockemperor (Flavien Prat), and Say The Word (Kent Desormeaux).

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That combination, both natives of England, will be seeking a second score in the $100,000 Grade 3 Red Carpet, a 1 3/8-mile race for older fillies and mares on Thanksgiving Day. It's the first of seven graded stakes which make up the four-day Turf Festival to end the Bing Crosby Season.

Single Soul, a 3-year-old English-bred daughter of Dubawi, notched her second win in six career starts in a Belmont Park allowance race on October 22 and has been training since at Motion's facility in Fair Hill, Maryland. The most recent work was Saturday, five furlongs in 1:03 breezing.

Single Soul is scheduled to journey here on Tuesday. Clapham has been at Del Mar since before the Breeders' Cup earlier this month.

“I haven't heard anything about the work, but (Motion) must have been happy with it or he wouldn't have entered her,” Clapham said this morning. “I've been around her before and she's a really sweet filly. She hasn't traveled before but she seems quite sensible, so you'd think she will be OK with it.”

Single Soul had a forgettable debut for trainer Chad Brown on a yielding surface at Belmont a year ago. In five starts for Motion, she has never been off the board, notching a maiden win at Belmont Park in June and the 1 1/8-mile allowance there as an odds-on favorite in a field of six last month.

The Red Carpet will be her first race at the stakes level.

“We think she'll like the longer distance and we know she likes firmer turf,” Clapham said. “You can't really get that in New York right now, so this looks like a nice spot. Graham is sending out some for other races as well, so it kind of works out.”

A field of five was entered Saturday for the Red Carpet. From the rail out with riders in parentheses: England's Rose (Victor Espinoza); Luck (Flavien Prat); Neige Blanche (Juan Hernandez); Single Soul (Joe Bravo), and Nicest (Umberto Rispoli).

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So begins the staging process for the four-day, seven-stakes Turf Festival that will wrap up the Bing Crosby Season at the track. And if the seven previous such closing stands of the fall meeting are any indication, the eager anticipation felt by horsemen and fans is more than justified.

A contingent of quality shippers from the east will arrive Monday or Tuesday in numbers that racing secretary David Jerkens expects will be similar to past years from the stables of trainers whose names top, or are highly stationed, on national lists.

Chad Brown has won nine Turf Festival races, with emphasis on the G1 events – Saturday's $400,000 Hollywood Derby and Sunday's $400,000 Matriarch – where he's notched three in each. He's expected to put seven or eight on the westbound plane, among them defending Matriarch champ Viadera. Brown has multiple graded stakes winner Public Sector and Sifting Sands nominated for the Hollywood Derby and Turf Cup nominee Rockemperor stabled at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., and available for the relatively short trip down the freeway.

Michael Stidham's Princess Grace, who shipped in to win the Yellow Ribbon in the summer and returned for a third-place finish as favorite in the G2 Goldikova during Breeders' Cup Week, has remained on the grounds and is nominated for the Matriarch. So has Goldikova runner-up Zofelle for trainer Brendan Walsh.

Trainer H. Graham Motion, who has notched Red Carpet, Jimmy Durante, and Seabiscuit Stakes wins in past Turf Festivals, has a handful of horses on-site and could bring in reinforcements considering his six stakes nominees. Ken McPeek has indicated he will be sending Camp Hope, a winner of two starts in October at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., and Greg Sacco is sending It Can Be Done off a third-place finish, beaten two lengths by Public Sector in the Hill Prince on October 23 at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.

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And New York-based trainer Chad Brown, who has shipped in nine winners from his deep bench of grass runners in the past, hasn't been heard from yet.

But several other prominent Midwest- and East Coast-based conditioners have, leading to expectations in the racing office of quality and quantity invaders for the main events on the Bing Crosby Season's final four days.

A sneak peek, with horse names being withheld until close of entries:

Hollywood Turf Cup, Friday, November 26th, Grade 2, $250,000, 1 ½ miles (turf), 3-year-olds and up: Trainer Mike Maker has placed five in nomination for a race Brad Cox won last year with Arklow.

Hollywood Derby, Saturday, November 27th, Grade 1, $400,000, 1 1/8 miles (turf), 3-year-olds: Wesley Ward, Dallas Stewart, Ken McPeek, Maker (2), Jack Sisterson (2), Graham Motion, and Gregory Sacco have nominees. Brown has won it three times, sending out Annals of Time (2016), Raging Bull (2018), and Domestic Spending last year.

Seabiscuit Handicap, Saturday, November 27th, Grade 2, $250,000, 1 1/16 miles (turf), 3-year-olds and up: One horse from Japan is listed while Maker has submitted two names and Motion one. Phil D'Amato has carried the locally-based trainer banner to wins with Midnight Storm (2015), Hunt (2017), and Count Again (2020). Add Richard Baltas' win with Next Shares in 2019 and this has been a good Festival race for the home team.

Jimmy Durante Stakes, Saturday, November 27, Grade 3, $100,000, 1 mile (turf), 2-year-old fillies: Maker and Motion (2) have nominees for an event dominated by shippers over the years. Brown-trained Fluffy Socks won last year. Mike Stidham won the two years before that and George Weaver, Motion, and Mark Casse have also scored in the seven editions at Del Mar.

Cecil B. DeMille Stakes, Sunday, November 28, Grade 3, $100,000, 1 mile (turf), 2-year-olds: Motion has an early nominee in an event that has been good for locals. Smooth Like Strait won for Mike McCarthy in 2019 and Beer Can Man for Mark Glatt last year. Both horses ran during the recent Breeders' Cup Week here.

Matriarch Stakes, Sunday, November 28, Grade 1, $400,000, 1 mile (turf), older fillies and mares: Trainer Joe Sharp has two nominated and Stidham one for the climactic stakes race of the meeting. Brown has shipped in three winners in seven meetings, among them Viadera in 2020.

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