There Is No Doubt About It : Del Mar: When you say Mabee around track, you are certain to mean success in horse racing.

DEL MAR â€”  John Mabee is used to seeing things grow. The son of an Iowa farmer, Mabee came West almost 50 years ago with his wife, Betty, and their 3-month-old son, arriving in San Diego in a 1941 Ford coupe, all their possessions in tow.

Not long afterward, they bought a grocery store for $2,000. That mom-and-pop operation was the start of the Big Bear supermarket chain, now 29 stores strong.

In 1957, the Mabees attended their first Del Mar yearling sale and bought two horses for $6,000. Both horses won--not enough for the Mabees to retire on, but enough to draw them into the game. Their Golden Eagle Farm near here is more than 500 acres and is home to more than 500 horses. The Golden Eagle racing silks show up at tracks throughout California, in Arizona and in England, and this year they were in Kentucky, where the Mabees’ Best Pal finished second to Strike The Gold in the Derby.

John Mabee paid $2.8 million to get into the insurance business and has a company that listed assets of close to $550 million earlier this year.

Mabee was a charter board member when the Breeders’ Cup began in 1984, and now the annual seven-race, $10-million series is the companion centerpiece to the sport’s Triple Crown.

And since Mabee joined the board of directors in 1970, Del Mar has become another of his typical growth industries. Twenty-one years ago, Del Mar was bringing in 11,000 fans per day, and purses were averaging less than $6,000. Today, as Del Mar begins its 52nd season, the smallest purse on the nine-race card is $18,000.

Before the season ends Sept. 11, Del Mar will have run its first $1-million race, the Pacific Classic on Aug. 10, and about 1.5 million fans will have bet its races, on-track and via a satellite network that includes Hollywood Park and Santa Anita.

Mabee’s track tenure began the same year that the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club signed a 20-year lease with the state, which owns the fairgrounds where the horses run. Mabee, 69, has been track president and is still chairman of the board.

The only horse that the Mabees had entered today--their 3-year-old gelding, Great Destiny--was scratched, but their overflowing barn probably won’t be idle for long. Last year, led by Best Pal, who won the Del Mar Futurity and two other stakes at the meeting, Golden Eagle Farm led the meeting in owner purses with $644,034. Best Pal, seeking a local encore, will be trying to beat older horses in the Pacific Classic.

John Mabee enjoys breeding a good horse and selling it to someone else almost as much as he does winning a race as an owner. Last year, having bred horses that earned $5.1 million, the Mabees finished third, behind Calumet Farm and Tartan Farms, in the voting for the Eclipse Award for breeding.

Mabee attended the awards dinner at San Francisco, and after congratulating Calumet, he quickly said: “We were No. 3 this year, but we’re gunning to be No. 1 next year.� Golden Eagle Farm leads this year with 117 victories and purses of $2.3 million.

Del Mar has a new sales pavilion, and to enhance the yearling auction Aug. 11-12, the Mabees have consigned 16 well-bred horses that would be welcome in Keeneland’s catalogue. The list includes sons of Seattle Slew, Nijinsky II, Storm Bird and Devil’s Bag, and fillies by Seattle Slew, Nijinsky II, Nureyev, Mr. Prospector, Lyphard and Secretariat.

“Maybe we can get a couple of the sheiks out here,� Mabee said. “And maybe some of the Saratoga crowd will show up, too. I’m not going to give these horses away. They have their reserves (minimum sale prices). But I guarantee you that our consignment will produce at least five or six stakes winners. Five or six, guaranteed.�

Horse Racing Notes

The opening-day Oceanside Stakes, which is split into divisions for the third consecutive year, is the usual grab bag. In the first half, River Traffic is coming off a minor victory at Hollywood Park, and there are two English horses, Scottish Castle and Quaglino, making their first American starts. Jack Munari, a partner in Scottish Castle, owns Dominion Gold, another English import, who is entered in the other division of the Oceanside. . . . Munari’s trainer, Bruce Jackson, said their standout on dirt, In Excess, is scheduled to run in the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga on Aug. 3.

Post time throughout the meeting is 2 p.m., with no racing on Tuesdays. . . . Hollywood Park will offer early-bird betting on the Del Mar races from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. . . . Charlie Whittingham believes that Golden Pheasant will be ready to run in Del Mar’s Eddie Read Handicap on Aug. 11, the trainer’s favorite prep for the Arlington Million. Whittingham has won the Million with Perrault, Estrapade and Golden Pheasant, and all three prepped at Del Mar, Perrault and Golden Pheasant both running third in the Read. . . . Lady Blessington, a recent purchase by Clover Racing, won a stake in Paris last Saturday for her third victory in four starts and is headed for the Del Mar Oaks on Aug. 25. Rick Mettee will be her American trainer.

The rest of the stakes in Del Mar’s first week are the Junior Miss for 2-year-old fillies Friday, the San Diego Handicap on Saturday and the Palomar Handicap for fillies and mares on grass Sunday. . . . Fifteen years ago, Laffit Pincay Jr. rode six winners here on opening day. Two years later, Pincay had another six-victory day at Del Mar. The only other jockeys to win six races in a day have been Bill Shoemaker in 1954 and Rudy Rosales in 1969. . . . Eddie Delahoussaye, who has swept a split Oceanside twice, in 1989 and 1981, will ride Timeless Account and Kalgrey in the stake’s divisions today.