From tales of mountain village racing, where the horses are spun in circles before the ‘off’ in Peru, to Colombian drug lords, including Pablo Escobar, spending millions on racehorses.

An excellent article this week, in the San Diego Union Tribune by Bryce Miller, notes that this is not the first time a horse named Arrogate who has graced the hallowed seaside track at Del Mar.

This was news to me, and probably to most bar bona fide racing aficionados in the States, and a further reminder of the greatest lesson I’ve learned when it comes to betting. That is – never bet on things past. You may think you know but somebody else will always know for sure.

I’ll admit to being something of a ‘smarty jones’ as a teenager but was firmly put in my place, and taught a valuable lesson, when the pub talk turned to the mighty Balmerino (Trictrac) among my father’s friends including Jack Reed, son of Ashley Reed who rode The Trump (Manfred) to win the Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) and Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) in 1937.

I was set up, of course. Reed began to speak of Balmerino winning the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m). Smarty pants here interjected: ‘excuse me, Mr Reed, Balmerino didn’t win the Caulfield Guineas. In fact, he never ran it. His first run in Melbourne was in the Feehan Stakes and he ran second to Wave King after he’d had trouble ‘tieing up’ in the lead-up to the race.” The Feehan, that year, incidentally was run at Sandown, not Moonee Valley.

“Is that so,’ Reed said,’ Balmerino never won a Caulfield Guineas? Care to bet a couple of dollars?” I foolishly responded yes, whereupon the Miller’s Guide (racing bible) was produced and sure enough a horse named Balmerino had won the Guineas in 1928.

The 1970’s Balmerino went on to run second in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Gr 1, 2400m), among many memorable overseas performances, and travelled to the States where he was a winner at Hollywood Park. Alas, for the sake of the story, he did not make it to Del Mar.

The ‘first’ Arrogate was also a horse of some note as Miller’s article outlines. The late 1950s version of Arrogate propelled jockey John Longden to racing history. The duo won the Del Mar Handicap in September, 1956 to push Longden to a record 4,871 wins.

Pointing to the essence of the glamorous, show-biz link to the Del Mar track, Miller wrote: ‘In the background of a photo showing Longden addressing the Del Mar crowd, Desi Arnaz — the actor, musician and husband of Lucille Ball — looked on. Fourteen years later, also on Labor Day and at the same track, Bill Shoemaker broke Longden’s victories mark.’

There is a magic about Del Mar.

The week’s research also turned up another excellent article by Bill Christine, in the Daily Racing Form in 2012, which detailed some of the track’s history and listed Del Mar’s top ten most memorable moments.

The coincidence of recycled names continued. Christine’s list included How Now, a five times stakes winner at the track in the 50’s before ‘our mare’ of the same name was to win the Caulfield Cup in 1976.

His list also included Azeri (Jade Hunter), twice a Hirsch Handicap (Gr 1, 8.5f) winner at Del Mar and only the third filly to be voted Horse of the Year. The curiosity, for me, here is that Azeri’s dam was the Australian sprinter Zodiac Miss (Ahonoora).

Zodiac Miss was trained by David Hayes and ridden by Michael Clarke to win the Great Western Champagne Stakes (Listed, 1000m) at Moonee Valley on Cox Plate day in 1991. She also won the Coca Cola Classic (Gr 3, 1200m) at Newcastle the following year.

She was was bred and raced in Australia by John Messara’s Arrowfield Stud and sold to Allen Paulson after a deal was reportedly brokered by Australian bloodstock agents Brian King and James Bester along with California-based agent counterpart Denny Boultinghouse.

I’m not sure whether Australian connections to Del Mar date back any further but in 1950, at the invitation of Johnny Longden, champion jockey George Moore traveled to the United States where he won the San Diego Handicap (Gr 1, 8.5f), on Manyunk, at Del Mar.

On the opening day of the Del Mar meeting in 2011, jockeys Chantal Sutherland and Australia’s Kayla Stra, then 26, won their first races at Del Mar. They became the first women jockeys ever to win races on the same day at Del Mar. More recently, Australian sports manager Paul Galli has been prominent racing horses in the States and residing nearby the track.

And, of course, the legendary Bing Crosby – one of the original investors in the Del Mar track – had extensive racing interests in Australia which began with yearling purchases in Sydney in 1941, some of whom he was to race with Louis B Mayer. Crosby was later to purchase Australian champion Ajax (Heroic) while Mayer bought Bernborough (Emborough).

The involvement of Crosby and his cohorts adds to the great romance and mystique of racing at Del Mar. It’s long been on my bucket list, and God willing, I not only get to go there for the first time this weekend but also to see an amazing horse in Arrogate.

The horses who topped Christine’s DRF Del Mar list were, not surprisingly, Seabiscuit (Hard Tack) and Zenyatta (Street Cry) and now Arrogate gets the chance to even usurp them with an extended Del Mar campaign mooted. If only Street Cry’s (Machiavellian) other champion daughter Winx were to be there Saturday.

The desire to head to Del Mar, at least, once has been fanned by Greg Carpenter (Executive General Manager Racing at Racing Victoria) who’s become enamoured with the venue.

“Please, please walk around the entire course,” Carpenter implored me. “Including the public area and look at the magnificent photos on display of Sea Biscuit’s match race with the crowd and photographers actually spilling onto the course at the finish.

“Or the photos of Bing Crosby at the turnstiles on the day the course opened in 1937 and taking the ticket from the first lady thru the gate, or all the other photos of people like Rita Hayworth, Lucille Ball, Gregory Peck, Jimmy Durante, Edward G Robinson and so many others loving the racing at Del Mar.

“The old feel of the racecourse and its amenities are as rich today as they were then.”

And just as you should never bet on things on past, sometimes – similarly – it’s unwise to bet on future outcomes either with the odds prohibiting a ticket on a champion; other than for reasons of souvenir.

Never bet for or against a champion and never forsake the opportunity to see one race. This was also drummed into me by old Jack Reed.

Great horse. Great racetrack. Sometimes that’s all you need. It doesn’t have to be always about the punt!