DEL MAR – Business on Pacific Classic Day didn't measure up to 2007 and the racing season will enter its final week here with minus numbers by comparison in all the major categories.
Sunday's on-track attendance of 30,142 was down 14.7 percent from last year's 35,320. Overall handle of $23,436,063, while the third-highest in track history, was down 5 percent from last year's $24,667,351, the all-time record.
Cumulative figures through the 36 racing days of the meeting through yesterday show on-track attendance down 5.8 percent from 2007, on-track handle down 11.5 percent and the overall handle down 7.5 percent.
On-track attendance of 6,912 yesterday was the lowest single-day number in several years.
Pedroza watch
Veteran jockey
Martin Pedroza went winless from two mounts yesterday and remains five wins away from the 3,000 mark for his career.
Pedroza, a 43-year-old native of Panama, has four scheduled mounts tomorrow and two each Thursday and Friday.
Closers
Eclipse Award-winning sprinter
Midnight Lute came away from the 10th-place finish in Sunday's Pat O'Brien Handicap, his 2008 debut ending a nine-month layoff, with lacerations from stepping on his own hoof and general soreness from a rough trip. Future plans are uncertain. . . . Trainer
Jeff Mullins' Futurity prospects Blazing Spirit and Arashi Cat had identical times of 59.60 for five furlongs. . . .
Klamika ($107.80) won yesterday's last race to anchor a Pick Six in which there were no winning tickets. The carryover to tomorrow is $111,820. . . . One ticket with the winning sequence 6-10-7-12-9 in the final race Super High Five paid $437,893. The ticket was purchased through the hub at Lewiston, Maine. The Super High Five wager, new to Del Mar this year, requires the bettor to identify the first five finishers in exact order in the day's last race. Yesterday's Super High Five started with a two-day carryover of $511,681 and $356,251 was added during the course of the afternoon.
Hank Wesch: (619) 293-1853; hank.wesch@uniontrib.com
