Strong Start for Del Mar

Monday, July 18, 2016 | 1:52 pm

Updated: July 18, 2016 at 6:54 pm

The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club kicked off it's annual summer season Friday, July 15, 2016 to the delight of thousands of fans and visitors. The seaside track in Del Mar, CA races Wednesday through Sunday through and including Labor Day Monday, Sept. 5, 2016. Accelerant and jockey Santiago Gonzalez (second from left) won the first race of the meet and returned $17.80 to his backers. ©Benoit Photo

Del Mar's three-day opening weekend produced solid figures, with on-track attendance up 13.4% and overall handle up 14.3% during racing Friday through Sunday.

“It was great to see San Diegans and racing fans in general respond so positively to our opening week,” said Del Mar Thoroughbred Club president Joe Harper. “Good crowds; good racing; good action at the window–that's what Del Mar's all about.”

Kicked off with an opening-day crowd of 42,562, attendance for the weekend totalled 76,962 for an average of 25,654, according to figures released by the track. Last year's three-day opening average was 22,613. Overall, the track saw wagering reach $15,827,100 per day, a rise of nearly $2 million above last year's $13,848,778 three-day average.

California off-track wagering for the weekend was up 12.3% with a rise of more than $600,000 per day, while out-of-state wagering was up 22% at more than $1.2 million each afternoon above the 2015 digits for the three days. After three cards, on-track wagering was up 1.7%.

The Del Mar summer meet runs through Labor Day, Sept. 5.