Del Mar Race Track

This track was tested like never before Saturday and, by all accounts, it passed. The on-track attendance of 44,181 was nearly 10,000 more than the previous record of 34,697 who showed up on opening day of the 1994 meeting. The handle also shattered the previous best. A total of $20.8 million was bet on Saturday's card, surpassing the old mark of $15,506,324, set Aug. 19 of last year. Most important of all, things seemed to run smoothly, and although Cigar lost for the first time since Oct.

The state of California and a horsemen's welfare fund expect to be big beneficiaries at Del Mar today if Cigar wins the Pacific Classic and many bettors keep their tickets as souvenirs. About $200,000 in bets on Cigar haven't been cashed from the day he won the Arlington Citation Challenge last month. And most of the $2 win tickets on Cigar have not been cashed at Suffolk Downs, where Cigar won the Massachusetts Handicap in June.

Two-year-old racehorses are like teenagers everywhere. All the good breeding in the world won't guarantee they won't, so to speak, run off with a rock band or join the circus or drop out generally and spend the rest of their lives breaking your heart. But, then, of course, some of them pay attention to business, join the establishment, make a name for themselves and succeed in business beyond your wildest expectations.

A man who later made references to suicide ran across the track during the stretch run of the feature race at Del Mar on Thursday, barely escaping contact with several horses that were driving for the finish line. The man, carrying a duffel bag filled with personal belongings, jumped the outer rail as the horses reached the top of the stretch.

The Riverside County Sheriff's Department is investigating the shortage of at least $300,000 from an off-track betting facility, money that apparently was bet by a parimutuel clerk during the last two weeks of the Del Mar horse racing season. "No arrests have been made, but we have some suspects," said Sgt. Steve Hill, who is heading the investigation. "We've done some partial interviews with some people."

At the end of last summer's Del Mar thoroughbred racing meet, one somber statistic overshadowed all others: 19 horses were dead, victims of catastrophic injuries at the track. One veteran horseman described the seaside venue that season as "a killing field." But incidents of track fatalities were hardly unique to Del Mar.

Every summer, amid the refreshing ocean breeze and soothing Bing Crosby music, the quest to identify the next top young thoroughbred racehorse begins here. "There's nothing more exciting than having a really good 2-year-old," trainer Bob Baffert said. "It's like new recruits. Any sports franchise, they're excited about the rookies. You got to get a Reggie Bush." As the 43-day Del Mar meet begins today, Baffert's stable is stocked with young horses and high hopes.

Everybody with a horse in the Pacific Classic on Sunday at Del Mar will be trying to beat Lava Man, the former claimer who won the Santa Anita Handicap and the Hollywood Gold Cup. Murray Johnson, the trainer of Perfect Drift, is reminding people that his horse already has. Perfect Drift was second, a neck ahead of third-place Lava Man, in last year's Pacific Classic, won by Borrego after Lava Man lost the lead down the stretch. That has Johnson talking a bit of horse-racing smack.

The sport of horse racing, which has seemed rumpled and stained for years, will dress up in its Sunday best tomorrow. It will be time for sport coats, summer dresses and the Pacific Classic at Del Mar, the $1-million race that is grandiose in both purse size and location.

Think of Del Mar as the oasis and the rest of the state as the desert on California's horse racing landscape. Del Mar is so much of a mirage to Hollywood Park, Santa Anita and other tracks whose businesses have capsized. "We're one of the fortunate ones," Craig Fravel, executive vice president of the seaside track, said at a state-of-the-game hearing conducted here Thursday by Sen. Dean Florez (D-Shafter), chairman of the state Senate's governmental organization committee.