Del Mar opens with revamped Oceanside

The summer season at Del Mar begins Friday with the Oceanside H., but the traditional opening-day feature has a new look for 2026. Formerly a restricted stakes race, the one-mile turf affair is now open to all three-year-olds as a handicap and carries a bigger purse of $150,000.

The Oceanside had been limited to non-winners of a sweepstakes at a mile or over in that calendar year. With its revamped conditions, the Oceanside will serve as the primary stepping stone to the track’s major race in the division, the Del Mar Derby (G2), on Aug. 23. The La Jolla, hitherto the middle leg of a three-race series, has been dropped from the stakes schedule.

The opening up of the Oceanside did not create an overflow at the entry box, as in former days when it was routinely split into divisions. Yet it did draw a contentious field of 12.

Two of its notable names are dirt performers making a surface switch. Mr. A. P., sidelined after his runner-up effort to champion Ted Noffey in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1), resurfaces for Vladimir Cerin. As a son of American Pharoah and turf stakes winner Trenchtown Cat, Mr. A. P. has claims to enjoy the lawn. Tim Yakteen’s Secured Freedom, once on the Kentucky Derby (G1) trail, just rebounded in the June 15 Affirmed S. over One More Freud at Santa Anita.

Cinema S. winner Bust Out ranks as the 122-pound highweight for Michael McCarthy, who sent out Formidable Man to score a breakthrough in the 2024 Oceanside. Like Formidable Man, Bust Out hopes to move forward from a loss at Churchill Downs – in his case, a fourth in the June 27 American Derby.

Unrivaled Time is the only entrant boasting two stakes wins routing on turf. The Leonard Powell pupil captured the course-and-distance Cecil B. DeMille (G3) as well as the May 23 Snow Chief S. in state-restricted company.

Phil D’Amato, a three-time Oceanside winner, has a trio of contenders. Perhaps the most interesting is his newest Irish import, Jordi Bear, who was an eye-catching runner-up to Jeff Mullins’s Proletariat in his U.S. premiere. Later Than Planned beat Wesley Ward’s future Royal Ascot romper, Bacio, in last year’s Speakeasy S. and added the John Shear S. earlier this season. But ever since his course-and-distance maiden win, Later Than Planned has been better suited to sprinting than navigating a mile. Iriseach, most recently second in the Cinema, is often thereabouts.

Proletariat, third in both the 2025 Del Mar Juvenile Turf (G3) and Zuma Beach (G3), is one of two Mullins runners. Stablemate Charlie’s Curlin has traded decisions with Bust Out, having edged him in a Santa Anita allowance prior to placing third in the Cinema.

Tiz All That is promising on the stretch-out for Richard Baltas, and Mo Koko, sixth in the Affirmed, rounds out the field.

Carded as the eighth race on Friday, the Oceanside is set for 8:30 p.m. ET.