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 race track opened the next year, Bing Crosby personally met fans at the ticket turnstyles to welcome them. The sleepy little resort village of Del Mar was about to became famous as the home of horse racing, soon to be visited by Hollywood stars, horsemen and horse racing fans from all around the globe.

In August of 1938, the track hosted a $25,000 winner-take-all match race between Charles S. Howard’s Seabiscuit and the Binglin Stable’s colt, Ligaroti. This was an era when horse racing ranked second in popularity only to Major League Baseball. The race was front page sports section news in all the major newspapers was the first nationwide broadcast of a thoroughbred horse race by NBC radio. Seabiscuit won this important race by a nose before a record crowd and the Del Mar Race Track was “on the map” as one of the most famous race tracks in the world.

Between the years of 1938 and 1942 the Del Mar horse racing track entertained Hollywood personalities and celebrities Mickey Rooney, Desi Arnaz , Lucille Ball, W. C. Fields, Douglas Fairbanks, Paulette Goddard and Ava Gardner. A famous comedian of the day, Joe Frisco, spent a fair amount of time and money in Del Mar. He played on his reputation as the consummate track loser with lines like: “I went to the track Monday but it was closed, so I just shoved the money under the door.”

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.

Shortly thereafter the railroad started a special promotion. The “railroad/racetrack special” brought race patrons from Los Angeles to Del Mar. Meeting the train and “star watching” became popular sport for track patrons and locals. Today, more than 70 years (and nearly $60,000,000 in improvements) later, the racing season will once again begin on July 22, 2009 through September 9.