DEL MAR — Carl Spackler is a grass horse — of course.

The famed greenskeeper of that name played by Bill Murray in the classic 1980 comedy “Caddyshack” would not have it any other way.

But the grass this Carl Spackler is familiar with has nothing to do with the kind the other Spackler knew all too well. That was a “cross of ... Kentucky bluegrass, featherbed bent and Northern California sinsemilla.”

This Carl Spackler is a 4-year-old colt, and he’s not on the hunt for gophers. He’ll be chasing — or being chased by — 11 other horses in Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile over a Del Mar turf course made strictly of GN1 Bermudagrass. (The GN is for Greg Norman.)

So why Carl Spackler?

“He was an Irish-bred horse, so any opportunity to have fun with the name, we took,” owner Bob Edwards said. “Obviously, ‘Caddyshack,’ Carl Spackler, being a turf colt — it kind of all lines up — and we did the same thing with the sister Sandtrap and named her in the same vein. Hopefully, you’ll see it now in pedigree lines for years.”

The name has given the horse “quite a following,” said trainer Chad Brown, who is confident Carl Spackler will run well Saturday but expressed concern about a “very challenging” outside post position.

“It’s just a matter of how much ground he’s going to lose in a race where he has to run his very, very best,” Brown said. “If he runs a similar race to his last race (a gate-to-wire victory in the Turf Mile at Keeneland) ... it does put him in the mix. His morning-line odds (6-1, fifth choice) probably accurately reflect where he fits with this group.”

Live racing begins

The Breeders’ Cup doesn’t start until Friday, but there will be live racing today at Del Mar with the opening of the track’s 11th fall season. Nine races are scheduled beginning at 12:30 p.m.; the feature is the $100,000 Let It Ride Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile on the turf. King of Gosford is the 5-2 favorite despite the far outside post position in the field of 10.

After this weekend, racing continues every Friday through Sunday through Dec. 1. For the first time there will be no racing on Thanksgiving but there will be seven turf stakes races that weekend, highlighted by a pair of Grade I events, the Hollywood Derby on Nov. 30 and the Matriarch on Dec. 1.