Fall racing at Del Mar opens Friday, Nov. 6. It runs for 13 days and ends Sunday, Nov. 29. Racing is on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, plus Thanksgiving Day, and first post is 12:30 p.m. on most days.
Summer racing at Del Mar is a big event with big crowds. The fall meet is a set of short afternoons, mostly on weekends, and it costs less to attend. Admission is lower than in summer, Sundays can be free, and the Thanksgiving card is over by 2 p.m. The Fairgrounds starts selling Christmas trees before the meet ends, and the Village has its tree lighting the Sunday after the last race.
A smaller version of the season
This is the 13th Bing Crosby Season, a fall meet the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club started in 2014 and named for the man who helped open the track in 1937. Friday cards usually have eight races. Saturday and Sunday cards have nine. With a 12:30 p.m. first post, a Friday visit can start after lunch and still end before dinner.
The meet has 15 stakes races worth $2.1 million in total, and nine of them are on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course. Several stakes carry names from the track's Hollywood years, including the Betty Grable, the Desi Arnaz, the Bob Hope, the Jimmy Durante and the Cecil B. DeMille. The two biggest races come on closing weekend. Both are Grade I turf races worth $300,000: the Hollywood Derby for 3-year-olds on Saturday, Nov. 28, and the Matriarch Stakes for fillies and mares on Sunday, Nov. 29.
What a November afternoon costs compared with July
Daily admission for the fall meet is $8. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune's 2026 summer preview, general admission was $10 on a regular summer day and $73 on Opening Day.
| Summer 2026 meet | Fall 2026 meet | |
|---|---|---|
| Daily general admission | $10 | $8 |
| General parking | $15 | $15 |
| Valet | $35 | $30 |
| Grandstand or box seat | n/a | $9 to $16 |
General parking costs $15 in both seasons, and you pay as you drive in. For two people driving in, a regular fall afternoon costs $31 before seats or food, and $15 of that is parking. That makes the Sunday offer and the transit options below worth a look.
Sundays are free with the app
Every Sunday of the meet is a Free & Fun day, which falls on Nov. 8, 15, 22 and 29. On those days, members of the Diamond Club get free admission, a free program and a free seat. They also get 25% off 20-ounce Michelob ULTRA drafts, Brandt Beef hot dogs and sodas at the concession stands.
The Free & Fun page lists these conditions:
- Membership is free, and you sign up in the Del Mar mobile app.
- You scan your Diamond Club card at the designated admission gates and show it at the concession stands.
- Each member gets one admission per race day.
- Discounts are not applied automatically, and they are not applied after the fact.
On Saturdays and Sundays there is a free handicapping seminar at noon, before first post. A member can arrive at noon, sit through the seminar, watch nine races and pay only for parking.
Each Saturday has its own event
The free Sundays are the cheapest days to go. Each Saturday adds a separate event, and some of them cost extra. Here are the dated events in order:
- Saturday, Nov. 7: College Day. This is the first Saturday special of the meet.
- Saturday, Nov. 14: Uncorked: Derby Days Wine Fest. Guests get unlimited tastings of more than 100 wines and bubblies, plus music, dancing, local food trucks and the Derby Dame & Dapper Dan fashion contest. The event is 21+, and racetrack admission is included. Early admission costs $100 and covers tasting from noon to 4 p.m. General admission costs $84 and starts at 1 p.m. Food is extra. The event page lists the code DMTC10 for $10 off.
- Saturday, Nov. 21: Taco & Beer Festival. It runs from noon to 4 p.m. at Stretch Run Apron West. A $17.50 wristband buys five tasting tickets for beer, cider or seltzer and a souvenir cup. Tacos are sold separately. Anyone at the track can enter the festival area, but only guests of legal drinking age can drink.
- Sunday, Nov. 22: Toys for Tots. Bring a new, unwrapped toy or make a cash donation at the admission gate, and admission is free.
- Saturday, Nov. 28: Del Mar Fall Handicapping Challenge, on the same day as the Hollywood Derby.
The ticket prices show how the meet is set up. A basic visit costs $8 or less. The wine festival is the one day built around a ticketed event of its own.
Thanksgiving runs from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
On Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov. 26, the track opens early. Racing starts at 11 a.m. and ends at 2 p.m., and the club says the early finish gives people "plenty of time to get home to the turkey and all the fixings." The feature race is the Grade III, $120,000 Red Carpet Stakes for fillies and mares, run at a mile and three-eighths on the turf.
The Thanksgiving Family Fun Run comes first. Registration and pre-race activities start at 7 a.m. Runners do one lap of the one-mile track, starting at the starting gate and finishing in the Winners' Circle, and Del Mar jockeys run with them. Each runner gets a photo and a souvenir medallion. Before the 8 a.m. start there are children's games, face painting, holiday crafts and free doughnuts while supplies last. Tickets cost $24 for ages 16 and up and $16 for ages 4 to 15, and each ticket includes racetrack admission. Children 3 and under get in free, and anyone 17 or under must stay with a parent or legal guardian. Proceeds go to Helen Woodward Animal Center's equestrian therapy program.
A family can run at 8, stay for the races, leave by 2 and be home in time to cook.
Getting there without paying for the lot
Amtrak and the COASTER both stop at the Solana Beach station. On race days, free shuttles run from the station to the track. They run continuously from the time the gates open and meet trains all day. Return shuttles leave 15 minutes after each race and 30 minutes after the last race. On Thanksgiving, the first shuttle leaves at 10 a.m.
The track's Pony Express package covers Nov. 6 to 29 as well as the summer meet. It combines race admission, round-trip NCTD or MTS transit and the shuttle ride. NCTD's race page lists the package at $15 for adults and $12 for youth and SDM riders, and it covers COASTER, SPRINTER, BREEZE and MTS service. That page still mentions the summer dates, so check that the package is available for your race day before you buy.
The holidays start before the last race
The holiday season at the Fairgrounds begins before the racing ends. Purdy Tree Farms opens a Christmas tree lot in the Fairgrounds' Main Parking Lot on Nov. 20 and stays through Dec. 15. It sells trees, wreaths and garlands and offers flocking and delivery. For the last two weekends of the meet, people buying trees and people going to the races will share the grounds.
In the Village, the holiday events fall on Sunday, Dec. 6, one week after the Matriarch. The Del Mar Village Association has three events scheduled for the same afternoon:
- North Pole by the Sea, 1 to 5 p.m. St. Peter's Episcopal Church is bringing in real snow for a free play area that is open to the public from 1 to 4 p.m. Monarch Ocean Pub is hosting a holiday VW bus photo stop on 15th Street, which also has the Rad Hatter party-hat craft for kids. Children can write letters to Santa on the ocean-view deck at Del Mar Plaza until 5 p.m., and carolers and holiday characters will walk through the Village.
- Winter Taste & Sip, 1 to 4 p.m. The event has restaurant tastes, drink stops, music and family activities downtown. On the association's page, the list of participating restaurants still reads "coming soon."
- Tree lighting, 5 p.m. The downtown tree is lit at the Jim Watkins Amphitheater at L'Auberge Del Mar. Hot chocolate for kids and drinks for adults are sold there starting at 4 p.m.
Coastal Christmas comes next at the Fairgrounds. It sets up in the Paddock, Plaza de Mexico and the West Parking Lot, with a holiday light trail, skating, private igloos and fire-pit tables. It runs from 4 to 9 p.m. on Dec. 11–13, Dec. 17–23 and Dec. 26. The Fairgrounds event page has the full schedule.
Opening day is Friday, Nov. 6, and the first post is at 12:30 p.m.
If you live in Del Mar and want to talk about the Fairgrounds' busy seasons, getting around the Village on event days, or anything else about your home and the area, Fontaine Realty Group is a family team based in Carlsbad, and we're happy to help. Contact us.
