DEL MAR -- Ask outrider Linda Baze what people like about horse racing at the Del Mar Racetrack and you get a simple answer. "Everybody loves Del Mar because we're at the ocean. Beautiful race track, beautiful people, everybody has fun," Baze said from the back of her quarter horse, Sugar.

Wednesday marks the 65th running of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club's summer racing season. For days now, the track's stables have steadily filled with sleek toned bodies. The supple black soil that cover's the one-mile oval's surface has experienced the steadily increasing thrum of hoof beats in an ever increasing quantity as July 21 approaches.

"By the end of this weekend, this place will be packed," Baze said, keeping one eye on a horse and rider running close to the rail.

On Thursday, racetrack spokesman Mac McBride said there were about 300 horses in Del Mar's stables.

"When we're closer to the race there will be somewhere between 2,200 and 2,300 thoroughbreds here," McBride said.

This year's racing season comes as California's betting gaming industry gears up for a ballot initiative backed by five race tracks and 11 card rooms including the Oceans Eleven Casino in Oceanside. If it gains enough voter support in November, the initiative would allow some race tracks -- Del Mar is not one of them -- to add slot machines at their on-site satellite wagering facilities.

McBride said the ballot initiative could mean trouble for Surfside, a satellite wagering facility located at the Del Mar Fairgrounds but unaffiliated with the thoroughbred club. However, Surfside has already seen lagging attendance with existing competition from local casinos that offer horse wagering and a range of other gambling options.

He added that he expects slot machines at other race tracks in California will have little if any negative effect on Del Mar's six-week racing season, because Surfside is closed when the horses run where the turf meets the surf.

"If you want to sit somewhere in a smoky place and drop quarters into a slot then good luck to you," McBride said.

According to track statistics, last year was Del Mar's best with 667,280 people walking through the gates. That number is up 9 percent from 2002 and sets an all-time record. Likewise, betting is also robust with $527 million in wagers placed last year.

Over the last few years, the Thoroughbred Club has worked to broaden the appeal of races. Its "Four o'clock Fridays" races feature popular bands after racing ends, giving young fans a reason to come to the track that is not directly associated with racing.

"Four o'clock Fridays were extremely popular last year," McBride said. "On Friday nights, we're actually running the largest singles club in San Diego."

For trainer Mike Mitchell of Redondo Beach, Del Mar is a nice break in the Southern California racing season.

He explained that, with races near his home, at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park, he must commute to the track on clogged Los Angeles freeways every day.

"All the owners love Del Mar, that for sure," he said. "It kind of acts like a vacation spot for everybody."

Slot machines were far from Mitchell's mind Thursday as his eyes scanned a broad sheet of information on each of the 40 plus horses he brought to Del Mar. But he added that many tracks in other states like West Virginia, Iowa, New Mexico and Delaware have already allowed slot machines and more are doing so every year.

"It's just helped horse racing all over the nation where they have it," Mitchell said.

He predicted that, as states with track side slot machines continue to offer larger and larger purses for horse races, the best horses will continue to leave California.

"If I start losing horses, I have to start thinking about where I have to go to make a living," he said.

As a trainer, Mitchell said that the lure of Del Mar for him has always been the relatively large purse for winners of even less competitive races with little-known horses.

"The little guy, the medium-sized guy, he can do really well here," Mitchell said.

This year, Del Mar will pay more than $6 million to owners who win top-level stakes races with the $1 million Pacific Classic the biggest of them all on Sunday, August 22.

Del Mar racing facts

Dates: Wednesday, July 21 through Wednesday, Sept. 8; no races on Tuesdays.

Address: 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd.

Telephone: (858) 755-1141

Internet: www.dmtc.com

Post times: Daily at 2 p.m with the following exceptions.

• Fridays (July 23 and 30; Aug. 6 and 13) at 4 p.m.

• Aug. 20 and 27 and Sept. 3 at 3:30 p.m.

• Pacific Classic day Sunday, Aug. 22, at 1 p.m.

Gates open: At noon weekdays, 11:30 a.m. weekends and opening and closing day.

• Fridays at 2 p.m.

• Pacific Classic Day at 11 a.m.

Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com