Del Mar Racing Season — Opening Day 2026

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Del Mar Racing Season — Opening Day 2026

Name: Del Mar Racing Season — Opening Day 2026
Start: 2026-07-17T12:00:00-07:00
End: 2026-07-17T16:59:00-07:00
Location: Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar, CA 92014

Friday, July 17, 2026

12:00 PM PDT – 4:59 PM PDT

Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar, CA 92014

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Del Mar Summer Racing Season 2026

Del Mar Racing Season 2026

Del Mar Horse Racing — Opening Weekend Saturday

Del Mar Racing — Sunday Family Day

Del Mar Racing — Bing Crosby Stakes Day (Grade I)

Del Mar Racing — Clement L. Hirsch Stakes Day (Grade I)

Del Mar Racing — Saturday Card (August 15)

Del Mar Racing — Pacific Classic Day (Grade I)

About

Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, July 17th. Opening Day at Del Mar is the day the racing season begins and the track reminds everyone why they've been waiting since last September. The hats come out. The paddock fills with horses that have been training all spring for exactly this track, this turf, this stretch. The summer meet opens and Del Mar is itself again.

Opening Day is a cultural event before it is a racing event. The fashion, the tradition, the specific San Diego energy of a day at the track when the sun is full and the bay is visible beyond the finish line — this is the Friday afternoon the summer calendar builds toward. The racing is serious — Del Mar attracts the West Coast's best horses — but Opening Day's atmosphere runs above the card. People come for the occasion.

Gates open at 12:30 PM. Jimmy Durante Blvd entrance. Grandstand, turf club, and infield options — the infield is the social core, the turf club is the view. dmtc.com for tickets and the Opening Day program. The first race of the summer meet goes off mid-afternoon. Be there for it. Opening Day at Del Mar is one of the few days in Southern California that is simultaneously everything it promises.

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Coming Soon 53 days away

Del Mar Summer Racing Season 2026

Jul 17 – Sep 7, 2026 Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, 2260 Ji…

The 87th summer season at Del Mar opens July 17 and runs through Labor Day weekend, September 7 — 32 days of thoroughbred racing where the turf meets the surf. The Opening Day hat tradition, the infield lawn, the Pacific fog burning off by the second race. The Pacific Classic in late August draws the best horses on the West Coast. One hour from Murrieta. If you've never been to Del Mar, this season is the reason. Dates and tickets at dmtc.com.

Coming Soon 53 days away

Del Mar Racing Season 2026

Jul 17 – Sep 7, 2026 Del Mar Race Track, 2260 Jimmy Dur…

The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club opens its 2026 summer racing season in mid-July at Del Mar Race Track, the legendary seaside course where the turf meets the surf. Del Mar has been running thoroughbred racing since 1937 — co-founded by Bing Crosby — and the combination of oceanfront location, the specific culture of California horse racing, and the compressed five-week season makes Del Mar one of the most atmospheric racing experiences anywhere. Del Mar's track sits adjacent to the Pacific Ocean with the breakers visible from the grandstand on clear days. The track's turf course is one of the premier turf racing surfaces in the United States, and the Del Mar summer meet traditionally draws strong fields from California-based stables as well as shippers targeting the Pacific Classic — one of the richest turf stakes races on the West Coast calendar. The grandstand culture at Del Mar spans the full range of California racing fandom — serious handicappers in the clubhouse, families in the infield with picnic blankets, the Friday racing-and-fashion crowd, and the Saturday headliner concert events that bring an entirely different audience to the same grounds after the racing card. Bettor-friendly simulcast wagering on races from across the country runs alongside the live card. Del Mar is at 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd, accessible from the I-5 at Via de la Valle. The Coaster commuter rail stops adjacent to the track. Parking on-site. General admission is inexpensive; clubhouse and turf club upgrades are available. Season runs mid-July through Labor Day.

Coming Soon 54 days away

Del Mar Horse Racing — Opening Weekend Saturday

Jul 18, 2026 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar, …

Opening Weekend Saturday at Del Mar on July 18 carries a different energy from Opening Day — the crowds have sorted themselves from the spectacle-seekers into the more serious racing audience, and the Saturday card tends to be sharper. Del Mar's summer meet runs Wednesdays through Sundays from mid-July through Labor Day, and the Saturday cards consistently draw the meet's best fields. The Thoroughbred Club has attracted the West Coast's top horses since 1937, and a Saturday afternoon in mid-July under the San Diego sun with Grade-quality horses going five and a half furlongs on the turf course is as good as racing gets anywhere in North America. First post at 2pm. The grandstand has seating or you can stand along the rail for free and watch the horses warm up before the crowd fully assembles.

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Del Mar Racing — Sunday Family Day

Jul 19, 2026 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar, …

Sundays at Del Mar during the summer meet are built for the fan who is not already a racing regular — the format-friendly card, the lower-key atmosphere compared to Saturday, and the proximity to the Pacific Ocean make it one of the most accessible sports afternoons in San Diego County. A Sunday in August at Del Mar means arriving at 2pm, learning to read a basic racing form with help from the grandstand regulars who are always willing to explain, and watching eight or nine races before the sun moves west over the Pacific. Del Mar's Sunday crowds run younger than the weekday meet, and the energy reflects it: casual conversations about the horses, the occasional spectacular finish celebrated by the entire grandstand, and the walk back to the parking lot a genuinely complete afternoon.

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Del Mar Racing — Bing Crosby Stakes Day (Grade I)

Jul 25, 2026 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar, …

The Bing Crosby Stakes on July 25 is one of the oldest Grade I sprint races on the West Coast — named for the man who co-founded Del Mar in 1937, run at six furlongs on the main track, and contested by the top sprint horses in North America. A Grade I race at Del Mar on a July Saturday draws both the serious racing public and the event crowd who wouldn't mark a racing day otherwise. The Bing Crosby carries $500,000 in purse and the winner's connections have reliably used it as a launching point for the Breeders' Cup Sprint in October. See these horses two weeks before they become national news. Del Mar's grandstand on Bing Crosby day is at capacity by the second race — arrive early enough to claim your spot at the rail.

Coming Soon 68 days away

Del Mar Racing — Clement L. Hirsch Stakes Day (Grade I)

Aug 1, 2026 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar, …

Del Mar, August 1st, 2026. The Clement L. Hirsch Stakes — a Grade I race for older fillies and mares with a $400,000 purse — anchors a Saturday card at the track where the Pacific Coast meets thoroughbred racing at its finest. The race has been run at Del Mar since 1950. The names on its past performers list are names that matter in racing. Grade I day at Del Mar has a different register than the regular Saturday card. The crowd dresses differently. The paddock has a different atmosphere when the horses that walk through it have traveled specifically for this field, selected by connections who believe they have a legitimate shot at a graded stakes on one of the best tracks in the country. The race itself — a mile and a sixteenth on dirt, fit mares going into the stretch — is the resolution of a summer-long argument about which horse is the best of this division. Gates open at 12:30 PM via Jimmy Durante Blvd. The Hirsch runs mid-afternoon. Grandstand, turf club, and infield options — pick your vantage point before the day of. dmtc.com for tickets and the full card. Del Mar on Grade I day is Del Mar performing at its best. The rest of the summer meet builds toward this kind of day. Be there for it.

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Del Mar Racing — Saturday Card (August 15)

Aug 15, 2026 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar, …

A mid-August Saturday at Del Mar is the summer meet in its most refined state — the meet three weeks old, the horses knowing the track, the crowd a more concentrated version of the racing public. August 15 at Del Mar sits between the Hirsch and the Pacific Classic, providing a weekend card where the feature races on the turf course are as competitive as any on the calendar. The Pacific Ocean is visible from the upper grandstand and the temperature on a mid-August afternoon at Del Mar rarely exceeds 75 degrees — the marine layer providing natural air conditioning that makes this the most comfortable racetrack in North America. Bring a racing form, find a seat in the lower grandstand, and let the afternoon move at the pace it sets for itself.

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Del Mar Racing — Pacific Classic Day (Grade I)

Aug 22, 2026 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar, …

The Pacific Classic on August 22 is the most important race run at Del Mar — a Grade I event at one and a quarter miles, the longest and most prestigious race of the entire summer meet, with a $1 million purse and a starting field that has historically included the best horses in training in North America. Pacific Classic Day is Del Mar's Kentucky Derby equivalent: the grandstand at capacity, the infield filled, the mutuel windows handling their largest volume of the year. Past winners include Zenyatta, Shared Belief, and Accelerate — horses whose names still appear in conversations about the West Coast's greatest performances. The Classic itself runs in the late afternoon, preceded by a full card including the Grade I Torrey Pines Stakes for three-year-olds. For anyone with a serious or casual interest in Thoroughbred racing, Pacific Classic Day is the annual appointment the summer calendar builds toward.

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