For Del Mar workers, it's a long opening day at a timeless track

More than 40,000 spectators were on hand during the opening day of the Del Mar season Thursday. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)The gates weren't yet open at Del Mar when the day's first boater hats and dresses showed up to chase the past.

Already, the sun burned bright above the racetrack. It has never rained on opening day at Del Mar, not once, so on Thursday, the start of this year's 40-day summer meet, the weather was pretty much the same as it was last year, the year before and in 1937, when Bing Crosby personally welcomed the first fans through the turnstiles.

That, and the Gatsbyesque attire, gives Del Mar a timeless feel, and well before dawn, the staff had been preparing…