A Brief History Bing Crosby And The Del Mar Race Track
June 23, 2009 by Terry Hunefeld
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In 1937, a well known singer named Bing Crosby talked to some of his Hollywood friends about a dream he had to build a horse racing track in the quiet resort community of Del Mar California, just north of San Diego. His friends Jimmy Durante and Pat O’Brien shared Bing’s dream and set out to help him build a great race track and where they could play the horses all day and the girls all night in the pleasant climate and cooling Pacific coast breezes of Del Mar.
When the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and race track opened, Bing himself took tickets at the gate and welcomed race fans to what was to become one of the most famous race tracks in the United States, visited by race fans, horse owners and sports enthusiasts from all over the world.
A milestone in the track’s history came during the summer of 1938 when the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club hosted a $25,000 match-up between Charles Howard’s Seabiscuit and the Binglin Stable’s Ligaroti. Only Major League Baseball superseded horse racing in American sports during this era. The upcoming match was the talk of the country. The race was the first time a thoroughbred horse race was ever broadcast nationally by NBC radio. The rest is history: Seabiscuit won and the Del Mar Race Track was famous – once and for all joining other storied race tracks in the annals of sports history as one of the most famous race tracks in the country.
The following years brought even more stars and celebrities to Del Mar and the race track: Red Skelton, Douglas Fairbanks, Lucy Ball, Desi Arnaz (“Lucy, you some ‘splainin to do!”) and Ava Gardner. The track was also frequented by Joe Frisco, a softly stuttering comic of the day, who would relate his success at “Bing’s” racetrack thusly: “I came by the racetrack yesterday but it was closed, so I just sh-shoved the money under the front gate.”
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Del Mar was closed for the duration of the war. The fairgrounds were initially used as a U.S. Marine training facility, then altered again and used to produce parts for the B-17 bombers that helped win the war. When the war ended, President Truman declared August 15, 1945 a national day of celebration. More than 20,300 horse racing fans showed up at the Del Mar track and bet an enormous (in those days) one million dollars.
In 1946 the Santa Fe Railroad began offering a race track special to bring spectators, bettors and horses to Del Mar from Los Angeles. Greeting the train (the “racetrack special”) at the train station became a popular tradition for Del Mar residents. Today, in 2009, more than seventy years (and sixty million dollars in improvements) later, the racing season begins on July 22 and extends through September 9.
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