It was in 1937 when Del Mar opened as Bing Crosby greeted the first fan through the gate. Then by the next year (1938), on August 12, the famous Seabiscuit-Ligaroti had a match race in the track which drew 20,000 to the track and a nationwide radio audience. It had a close fight and intense duel, and Seabiscuit under George (The Iceman) Woolf and 130 pounds beat Ligaroti and Noel (Spec) Richardson at 115 by a nose.

Del Mar is one of the racetracks that created history in horse racing as it continues to do outstanding numbers–30,578 for daily average attendance (1st in the nation) and a record $12,115,024 for a daily average handle (2nd nationally). It also crowned a couple of new kings, and in 2006, it received a 42,005 audience, the second-largest crowd in track history. Even in 2010, despite the continuing recession that tightened the businesses, the track still managed to increase the daily on-track body count to 17,906, numbers that haven’t been seen on the local scene since pre-ITW days. Then on the following year (2011), the track’s Opening Day attendance rose to a single-day record of 46,588.