More than 40,000 race fans are expected to attend what’s defined as one of the most fabulous, fashionable and fun festivities in San Diego – Opening Day at Del Mar Racetrack on Friday, July 15. Del Mar Thoroughbred Club will conduct its 77th summer racing season with a full range of wagering opportunities on 43 stakes events worth a total of $7.55 million. The seaside course’s piece de resistance – the $1-million TVG Pacific Classic – is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 20. The Classic, run at a mile and one quarter and open to 3-year-olds and up, will headline a stakes tripleheader afternoon that also will offer the Grade I, $300,000 Del Mar Oaks and the Grade II, $250,000 Del Mar Handicap.
“We’re opening for the first time on a Friday in forever and I think that will kick off a terrific starter weekend,” said track president Joe Harper. “We’ve got great racing lined up once more and a ton of additional events and happenings set to go.”
Opening Day is not only about big bets and fast horses, but celebrating the season in style. Fashion-minded guests may participate in Del Mar’s annual tradition, the Opening Day Hats Contest where entrants compete for cash prizes and judged on creativity and style.
Explore your sense of hat creativity and you could win a share of more than $5,000 in total prizes. Strut your stuff between 11:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. in Plaza de Mexico located inside the Stretch Run admission gates. 
Enter in one of the following five categories: Most Glamorous, Best Racing Theme, Funniest/Most Outrageous, Best Fascinator and Flowers/All Other. There is no fee to participate and all entrants will receive two free admission passes to return to the races.
Winners in each category receive: first place: $300 plus Studio Savvy Gift Basket valued at $250; second place: $200; and third place: $100. The Grand Prize winner receives a one night stay at Fairmont Grand Del Mar and hosted meal for two at the Addison Restaurant. Total value of more than $1,000.
The shore oval’s 33 major, or “advertised,” stakes again will carry purses ranging from $100,000 to $1,000,000, while its 10 “overnight” stakes each will be worth $75,000. Further, the racing headquarters “where the turf meets the surf” will provide its horsemen with projected purses of more than $525,000 a day, the richest incentives of their kind in California and among the most lucrative of any race meet in America.
“We made some small tweaks this year, but for the most part we’ve got our usual highly anticipated stakes schedule lined up for the summer of 2016,” said Del Mar’s executive vice president for racing Tom Robbins, who’ll be working out of the track’s racing office for the 36th year.
Besides the TVG Pacific Classic, Del Mar’s other races with Breeders’ Cup ties are the $300,000, Grade I Clement L. Hirsch Stakes on Saturday, July 30 (guaranteeing admission to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff); the $300,000, Grade I Bing Crosby Stakes on Sunday, July 31 (BC Sprint); the Del Mar Handicap (BC Turf), and the Pat O’Brien (BC Dirt Mile).
Following its opening three-day weekend, Del Mar will run five days per week (Wednesdays through Sundays) for the balance of the 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., including the Opening Day Friday. All other Fridays during the session will have a 4 p.m. start.