Del Mar's Fall Meet Runs on a Weekly Rhythm. Which Day Is Yours?
October 29, 2026
October 29, 2026
"The fall meet has a different vibe than summer – it's more relaxed," Chris Bahr, Del Mar's director of events and promotions, told the San Diego Union-Tribune last week. "Some locals prefer it more." He added a warning: "It goes quick. Make sure to reserve a date."
That advice deserves to be taken literally. The 2026 Bing Crosby Season opens Friday, Nov. 6, and closes Sunday, Nov. 29. The schedule follows a fixed weekly pattern. Friday brings the bar discounts and the free seat for seniors, Saturday the ticketed festivals, and Sunday free admission for Diamond Club members. The racing builds on its own separate track, with most of the big stakes held back for the last four days. Once you know your own priorities, the calendar tells you which afternoon to pick.
Summer at Del Mar is 32 days long, and more than 21,000 people came through the gates for its 2026 Opening Day, The Coast News reported in July. The fall meet has 13 race days. Racing runs Friday through Sunday each week, plus Thanksgiving Day. That gives you four Fridays, four Saturdays and four Sundays, and the people who planned the meet gave each of those days its own job.
The basics stay the same all month. On a regular race day, gates open at 11 a.m. and first post is 12:30 p.m. Fridays carry eight races and Saturdays and Sundays carry nine. Daily admission is $8, or $4 for Diamond Club members. Admission is free for anyone 17 and younger and for active-duty and retired military. General parking is $15 per vehicle. Valet and limo or bus parking are $30 each, paid on entry, and there is no re-entry. If you live close enough to walk or bike to the corner of Via de la Valle and Jimmy Durante Boulevard, you skip the parking fee, which costs nearly twice as much as a ticket.
The Diamond Club membership is free and you sign up in the Del Mar mobile app. Several of the best deals of the month require it, so it's worth downloading before Opening Day. Members also get in free on Opening Day itself.
"There's a lot happening on Fridays," Bahr told the Union-Tribune. Every Friday of the meet brings three standing promotions:
The Friday dates are Nov. 6, 13, 20 and 27. Opening Day also brings the Let It Ride Stakes and Diamond Club Day. The last Friday falls inside the closing festival, covered below. For a two-hour stop after an early end to the workweek, with eight races and discounted wine, the middle two Fridays are the cleanest choice.
Each Saturday has a theme, and the themes change much more from week to week than the Friday and Sunday promotions do.
Nov. 7 pairs College Day, with free admission and seating for students with a valid ID, and Data On Us, which gives bettors free handicapping information when they sign up at dmtc.com. The feature race is the Chosen Vron Stakes.
Nov. 14 is Uncorked Derby Days, a 21-and-over wine tasting from 1 to 4 p.m. that includes the Derby Dame & Dapper Dan Fashion Contest. General admission is $84. The $100 early-admission ticket starts the tasting at noon. Both tickets include all-day track admission, a racing program and tipsheet, and unlimited tastings. Food is sold separately. The Union-Tribune reports that part of the proceeds goes to Urban Surf 4 Kids and that guests watch from the Seaside Cabana. The Desi Arnaz Stakes runs the same afternoon.
Nov. 21 brings the season's new event, the Taco & Beer Festival, from noon to 4 p.m. on the Stretch Run Apron West. Five 7-ounce drink tickets and a souvenir cup cost $17.50, with tastings of beer, cider and seltzer. Tacos come from local vendors and are sold separately. Bahr told the Union-Tribune there will also be tequila sampling with Patrón. The festival area is open to all ages, and you must be 21 or older to drink. The Grade III Native Diver Stakes is the feature that day.
On every Saturday and Sunday, the Weekend Wagering Seminars start 30 minutes before the first race in the Plaza de Mexico. Horsemen, handicappers and members of the media go through the day's card.
Free & Fun returns every Sunday. Diamond Club members get free admission, a program and a seat, plus 25 percent off Brandt Beef hot dogs, sodas and 20-ounce Michelob ULTRA drafts. Parking still costs the standard rate, so a Sunday afternoon for a household of Diamond Club members comes to $15 plus whatever the hot dogs cost.
Two Sundays come with extra reasons to go. On Nov. 15 the Grade III Bob Hope Stakes headlines the card. On Nov. 22 the track runs its Toys for Tots drive, and a new, unwrapped toy or a cash donation gets anyone in free. Donation bins are outside the admission gates. That is the one day of the month when free admission doesn't depend on age, student status, military service or the app.
At the other end of the price range, Taste of the Turf Club runs on Sundays with a three-course farm-to-table menu and bottomless mimosas for $184.
So far the weekly pattern rewards anyone who shows up early in the month with a free or cheap day. The stakes schedule works the other way. Del Mar announced 15 stakes worth $2.1 million for the season, and nine of them are on turf. Most of them run during the FanDuel Racing Turf Festival, which covers the meet's last four days.
"We've got one of the best turf courses in the country, and we put a real emphasis on it for our fall meet," David Jerkens, Del Mar's senior vice president for racing and racing secretary, told the Union-Tribune. The graded races run on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course.
| Date | Feature races | Also on the card |
|---|---|---|
| Thu., Nov. 26 | Red Carpet Stakes, $100,000, 1 3/8 miles on turf | Family Fun Run, Thanksgiving Brunch, 11 a.m. first post |
| Fri., Nov. 27 | Hollywood Turf Cup, Grade II, $200,000 | Family Fun Day, Friday promotions |
| Sat., Nov. 28 | Hollywood Derby, Grade I, $300,000; Seabiscuit Handicap, Grade II; Jimmy Durante Stakes, Grade III | Betting Challenge |
| Sun., Nov. 29 | Matriarch Stakes, Grade I, $300,000; Cecil B. DeMille Stakes, Grade III; Bayakoa Stakes, Grade III; Stormy Liberal Stakes | Closing Day, Free & Fun, mandatory payout |
The overlap on the closing Sunday is the best value of the month. Free & Fun still applies on Nov. 29, so a Diamond Club member can watch the Grade I Matriarch and three more stakes for the price of parking. Closing Day is also the track's mandatory payout day, when the Union-Tribune says mandatory payouts apply to all wagers.
The Saturday before it is the more serious betting day. The Betting Challenge has a $3,000 buy-in and an expected $125,000 in prizes.
Family Fun Day lands on the Friday after Thanksgiving, Nov. 27. The Union-Tribune lists rock-climbing walls, an inflatable game zone and mini golf.
"We're excited to have racing back on Thanksgiving," Bahr told the Union-Tribune. The holiday runs on its own clock. Gates open at 9:30 a.m. and the first of eight races goes off at 11 a.m. The racing wraps up by midafternoon, which leaves the evening open for dinner at home.
Before any of that, the Family Fun Run sends runners on a one-mile lap of the oval:
Entry is $24 for ages 16 and up and $16 for ages 4 to 15. Children 3 and under run free. Proceeds go to Helen Woodward Animal Center's therapeutic riding program. For anyone staying through the races, the Turf Club's Thanksgiving Brunch costs $184 per person. It includes Turf Club admission, reserved seating at tables for up to four, a three-course meal, and mimosas until race six. The Red Carpet Stakes, for fillies and mares 3 and older, is the holiday feature and opens the Turf Festival.
Opening weekend also overlaps with Exposure 2026, a free skateboarding festival running Nov. 6 to 8 at Encinitas Community Park, 425 S. Santa Fe Drive, the park known locally as Poods. Proceeds support programs for survivors of domestic violence. A Saturday that begins at the skate bowl in Encinitas can end at the track for College Day and the Chosen Vron Stakes. For families with teenagers, that covers both events in a single tank of gas.
Our team follows North County's calendar as closely as its market, because the way a stretch of coast spends its weekends tells you a lot about living there. If the Bing Crosby Season has you looking at the streets within walking distance of the track, John & Ryan Real Estate Group can show you what those homes look like, from Via de la Valle down to the Del Mar bluffs. Schedule a Consultation.
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