Oceanside Stakes 2022: Field & Odds at Del Mar

Del Mar Kicks Off Summer Meet with 77th Oceanside Stakes

Del Mar Racetrack will open its gates Friday, July 22 for the first of 31 racing days that will comprise its 2022 summer racing season, the 83rd time the horses have come to the scenic seaside place where the turf meets the surf.

Topping the day's bill will be the 77th edition of the traditional Opening Day feature, the Oceanside Stakes at a mile on the grass for 3-year-olds, and the race has drawn a full complement of 14 runners.

The Oceanside will be the eighth of 10 races on the afternoon that will offer a first post of 2 p.m. The full card drew a husky 124 entries in total, 110 of which will be able to run because of safety considerations at the various distances. That averages out to 11 horses a race, a number not seen very often in Southern California and no doubt an indicator of the popularity of racing at the shore oval, which has become one of America's premier horse racing meccas.

The Oceanside appears to have a highly competitive field and luck will surely be a factor in the large group spread across the track's deep, green Jimmy Durante Turf Course. Possible favorite in the stakes is ERJ Racing, Madaket Stables, et al's Mackinnon, a colt by Triple Crown hero American Pharoah who is already a stakes winner at a mile on the Del Mar grass having taken the Del Mar Juvenile Turf Stakes here last September. The chestnut subsequently ran third in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf, which was run at Del Mar last November 5.

Trainer Doug O'Neill will give top local rider Juan Hernandez a leg up on Mackinnon, who'll be coming into the race off a series of sharp workouts following a five-month break from the races.

Chief threat to McKinnon could be Little Red Feather Racing and Madaket Stable's Balnikhov, an Irish-bred gelding who has been close-up in a trio of stakes this year since coming over Europe. The steady sophomore has won three times, placed three times and finished third twice in 11 races so far and trainer Phil D'Amato has assigned top turf rider Umberto Rispoli as his partner.

The son of Adaay, out of the First Defense mare, Leeward, missed by a nose to Sumter in the $100,000 Singletary Stakes at Santa Anita in his first U-S start in April. He followed that performance with another runner-up finish, this time to Stolen Base in the G2 American Turf on Kentucky Derby Day at Churchill Downs.

Trainer Phil D'Amato remarked, "I just ran him back too quick off the ship and the equipment change (blinkers on) I don't think helped, it just made him too keen."

D'Amato says the blinkers will come back off for the Oceanside. Balnikhov has worked four times since his disappointing run in the Cinema, one of which was a bullet five-furlong work in 59.80 on July 1st. It was the best of nine other runners at the distance at Santa Anita that day.

Balnikhov came to America having won 3-of-his last-4. One of those victories came at the famed Chantilly racecourse in France. He'll have a new rider in the Oceanside. Umberto Rispoli will climb aboard the gelding for the first time Friday.

Mackinnon breaks from Post 1, while Balnikhov goes from Post 8.

Del Mar will race Friday through Sunday for its first week, then go on a regular Thursday through Sunday schedule for the majority of the meet. There will be racing on Labor Day Monday, September 5, followed by a Friday-through-Sunday final week closing out the session on Sunday, September 11. The track's foremost offering - the $1,000,000, Grade I Pacific Classic - will be presented for the 32nd time this year on Saturday, September 3.

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