Del Mar Racing Season: Summer Meet and Bing Crosby Fall Dates

Del Mar runs two Thoroughbred meets a year at the seaside oval on Jimmy Durante Boulevard. This is the season guide — not a single stakes race. If you only remember Opening Day hats, you’re missing the November Bing Crosby meet, which is the next one on the calendar.

The two 2026 meets

Summer: Friday, July 17 through Labor Day Monday, September 7. First post is 2:00 p.m. most race days (1:30 p.m. closing weekend, September 5–7). Opening Day is the costume-and-hats Friday; the Pacific Classic is Saturday, August 22. Tickets for that meet went on sale May 8.

Bing Crosby (fall): Friday, November 6 through Sunday, November 29. This is the compact meet — racing Fridays through Sundays, plus Thanksgiving. Gates 11:00 a.m. and first post 12:30 p.m. on a normal card. Thanksgiving Thursday, November 26, is earlier: gates 9:30 a.m., first post 11:00 a.m. The FanDuel Racing Turf Festival fills November 26–29, with Grade I days on the last weekend (Hollywood Derby, Matriarch).

They do not race every day in either meet. Check the live calendar at dmtc.com/racing before you drive up the 5.

What a race day actually is

You are at Del Mar Racetrack / Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar, CA 92014 — the fairgrounds oval, not the village. Summer feels like a beach party with horses. Fall is shorter, cooler, and built around the turf festival and Thanksgiving week.

A Bing Crosby weekday-weekend card is typically eight or nine races. You can stand at the rail on racetrack admission, sit in the grandstand or a box, or buy a trackside dining table. Official fall daily prices from DMTC:

• Racetrack admission: $8
• Grandstand or box seats: $9–$16
• Trackside dining tables: $70–$187 per table

Children 17 and under get free racetrack admission on the fall meet (restrictions apply; ask the ticket office). Discount admission and grandstand pricing for kids is listed on the same ticket page.

Ticket office: (858) 792-4242 or ticketoffice@dmtc.com. Buy on dmtc.com — fall race-day inventory is already up.

Opening Day vs. the rest of the year

Opening Day (this year Friday, July 17) is its own animal — hats contest, The Party, later first post. We already have that card: Opening Day at Del Mar. Closing day of the summer meet is Labor Day; that’s a separate write-up too.

If you want a regular Del Mar afternoon — first post, a program, the ocean just west of the grandstand — pick a Saturday in the Bing Crosby window or a summer Saturday that isn’t Classic weekend.

How to go in November

Upcoming Bing Crosby race days on the official calendar: Nov. 6–8, 13–15, 20–22, and 26–29. Opening of this meet is Friday, Nov. 6, first post 12:30 p.m. Don’t mix that with the July Opening Day.

Dates can move; DMTC says so on the season page. Confirm before you buy a table.

Tickets and the racing calendar: https://www.dmtc.com/

Fall race-day tickets: https://www.dmtc.com/tickets/detail/fall-race-day-tickets

More of what’s on: https://www.hellosandiego.com/events