Del Mar Horse Racing — Opening Weekend Saturday
Saturday, July 18, 2026
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Del Mar Summer Racing Season 2026
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.
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Del Mar Racing Season — Opening Day 2026
They've been saying 'Where the Turf Meets the Surf' for eighty years at Del Mar, and the moment you walk through the gates on Opening Day, you understand why. Women in elaborate hats, the Pacific breeze drifting in from a quarter mile away, a field of world-class thoroughbreds loading into the gate. July 17, 2026 — the most festive single day in San Diego's sports calendar. Dress well. Pick a horse. Stay all afternoon.
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Del Mar Racing — Sunday Family Day
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 — Midweek Wednesday Card
Del Mar runs Wednesdays through Sundays during the summer meet, and a Wednesday afternoon at the track is one of the most underrated sports afternoons in Southern California. The crowd is smaller, the line for the mutuel windows is shorter, and the horses are the same ones that ran in front of 40,000 on Saturday. A Wednesday card at Del Mar draws the professional racing public — horseplayers, trainers, the regulars who come every week — and creates an intimacy with the racing that weekend crowds don't allow. The rail along the stretch run has open space on Wednesdays. You can watch the horses in the paddock without fighting a crowd. First post at 2pm. The marine layer is usually gone by then. There is genuinely nothing else like this in Southern California sports.
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Del Mar Racing — Thursday Sunset Card
A Thursday evening at Del Mar during the summer meet is racing conducted as the San Diego summer intended it — the track running a card that starts at 4pm, the grandstand filling after the workday, and the final races run with the Pacific sky going pink and orange behind the western stands. Del Mar's Thursday programs during the summer meet are among the most pleasant in American racing: the crowd dressed comfortably rather than formally, the races competitive, and the atmosphere entirely relaxed in a way that Saturday's crowds cannot be. The sunset over the Del Mar stretch run is a genuine spectacle — if you have not been to a Del Mar evening card, Thursday is the best entry point into what makes this track different from every other racetrack in the country.
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Del Mar Racing — Bing Crosby Stakes Day (Grade I)
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.
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Del Mar Racing — Clement L. Hirsch Stakes Day (Grade I)
August 1 brings the Clement L. Hirsch Stakes to Del Mar — a Grade I race for fillies and mares at one mile and one-sixteenth on the main track, one of the most significant races on the West Coast calendar for the female division. The Hirsch is the counterpart to the Pacific Classic: where the Classic defines the older male division, the Hirsch defines the top female performers for the second half of the year. August 1 is deep into the summer meet, when the best horses have had a race or two on this track and the fan base knows who to watch. The card surrounding the Hirsch typically includes several stakes races on the turf, making it one of the richest single programs of the summer. First post 2pm, feature race in the late afternoon.
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Del Mar Racing — Best Pal Stakes Weekend (Grade II)
August 8 features the Best Pal Stakes at Del Mar — the premier two-year-old sprint on the West Coast, a Grade II event at six and a half furlongs identifying which juveniles will compete for Breeders' Cup Juvenile honors in October. Watching two-year-olds at Del Mar in August is watching the next generation of champions in their first important tests. The horses haven't been to a track this competitive yet and the racing is unpredictable in the best possible way — early speed, late ralliers, and the occasional first-time winner at 20-to-1 that becomes the story of the weekend. The Best Pal card is one of the most family-friendly of the summer meet, the afternoon races running at a pace that allows you to teach a first-timer how to read a racing form between stakes.
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