Bing Crosby Season in Del Mar: How to Plan Your November at the Track, From Opening Weekend to the Matriarch

The 13th Bing Crosby Season offers a $2.1 million stakes schedule at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, and $1.5 million of it is run in the final four days. The meet opens Friday, November 6 and closes Sunday, November 29, for 13 racing days in all. Nine of its 15 stakes fall between Thanksgiving morning and closing day. Opening weekend is different. That Saturday and Sunday overlap a full Pacific Surfliner corridor closure.

The meet builds toward a crowded, well-funded final stretch, and its first weekend is the hardest of the season to reach by rail. If you live within a short drive or walk of the Fairgrounds, start your plan with the end of the month.

How the money is spread across the month

Every week of the meet runs on the same Friday-through-Sunday pattern. Thanksgiving Thursday is the one addition. First post is 12:30 p.m. on regular days, gates open at 11 a.m., and Friday cards normally carry eight races to the weekends' nine. The stakes are less even. Here is how they fall week by week, based on Del Mar's August 13 schedule announcement:

Most of the stakes carry Hollywood names in honor of founder Bing Crosby: Betty Grable, Desi Arnaz, Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante and Cecil B. DeMille were all part of the track's early days. The final four days now make up the FanDuel Racing Turf Festival, which Del Mar lists for November 26–29. Last fall the San Diego Union-Tribune described the festival as three days on the closing weekend of November 28–30. This year it adds Thanksgiving Day.

Opening weekend, when the trains stop

Opening Day is Friday, November 6. The $100,000 Let It Ride Stakes is on the card, and Diamond Club members get free general admission. Saturday brings the Cal-bred The Chosen Vron Stakes at seven furlongs, and Sunday the Betty Grable Stakes for fillies and mares, each with a $100,000 purse.

The same Saturday and Sunday appear on the Pacific Surfliner travel advisories page as a full corridor closure. From November 7 to 8, no Pacific Surfliner trains will run anywhere between San Diego and San Luis Obispo, and no bus bridges will be provided. NCTD's service alerts page also lists November 7 and 8 as a proposed absolute work window. The projects named for those dates include Del Mar Bluffs Phase 5 and Batiquitos Lagoon double-track work. NCTD's table does not say whether COASTER passenger service will be suspended that weekend, so check the COASTER schedule before you count on it.

This matters because the rail connection is how Del Mar handles race-day traffic. The club pays for a shuttle from Solana Beach station that meets every Amtrak and COASTER train. Return shuttles leave 15 minutes after each race and 30 minutes after the last race of the day, and riders are dropped off and picked up just west of Mission Towers. With no Surfliner trains that Saturday and Sunday, the shuttle serves fewer riders on two of the meet's 13 days.

Driving is the alternative, and the costs are posted. General parking is $15 a day, valet and limo or bus parking are $30, you pay as you enter, and there is no re-entry. A book of five general parking passes costs $29 for the Bing Crosby Season. That works out to under $6 a visit, and five trips across the 13 days is a realistic count for anyone who lives nearby. Daily admission is $8, and grandstand and box seats run $9 to $16.

The Fairgrounds is busy outside racing hours too. The Billy Joel Legacy is on the calendar for opening night, Friday, November 6, and The Psychedelic Furs play Sunday, November 8, which is also the second closure day.

The quieter middle weeks are for the festivals

The two middle weekends carry $300,000 in stakes between them, and Del Mar fills those Saturdays with its ticketed food and drink events.

• Uncorked Derby Days, Saturday, November 14, 1 to 4 p.m. Early admission is $100 and general admission is $84, and both include racetrack admission. The Desi Arnaz Stakes for two-year-old fillies runs the same afternoon.
• Taco & Beer Festival, Saturday, November 21, noon to 4 p.m. A $17.50 tasting wristband comes with five drink tickets and a souvenir cup. That afternoon's feature is the Grade III Native Diver at a mile and an eighth, the last dirt stakes until closing day.
• Jockey Box Fridays, every race Friday. The club advertises 25% off signature drinks and Oggi's Pizza.

November 21 can run late. Houndmouth plays The Sound at the Fairgrounds at 8 p.m. that night, so the Taco & Beer Festival and a concert fit into one day on the same grounds. In the village, the Del Mar Village Association lists a Breast Cancer Cheering Station downtown on the morning of Friday, November 13, from 8 to 9:30 a.m. That is hours before first post on the second Friday of the meet.

Thanksgiving Day, hour by hour

The Thanksgiving card was built to end early. Del Mar describes the eight-race program as starting at 11 a.m. and finishing around 2 p.m., "to allow folks plenty of time to get home to that turkey and all the fixins." For anyone within a few miles of the track, the timeline looks like this:

1. 7 a.m. Registration and activities open for the Family Fun Run.
2. 8 a.m. The Fun Run starts. Entry is $24 for ages 16 and up and $16 for ages 4 to 15, and racetrack admission is included.
3. 9:30 a.m. Gates open, earlier than the usual 11 a.m.
4. 10 a.m. The shuttle from Solana Beach station starts running.
5. 11 a.m. First post, and the Turf Club brunch begins, with a three-course meal, a reserved table and mimosas. The brunch price was not posted when this was written, so confirm it with the ticket office.
6. Around 2 p.m. The card wraps up.

The day's stakes is the $100,000 Red Carpet Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile and three-eighths on the turf, and it opens the Turf Festival. The Grade II, $200,000 Hollywood Turf Cup follows on Friday, November 27, at a mile and a half.

Closing weekend is the main event

Most of the stakes money comes on the last Saturday and Sunday. Saturday, November 28 has three graded stakes: the Grade I, $300,000 Hollywood Derby for three-year-olds at a mile and an eighth on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course, the Grade II, $200,000 Seabiscuit Handicap, and the Grade III Jimmy Durante Stakes for two-year-old fillies. Del Mar's preview notes that last year's Seabiscuit went to Call Sign Seven at 68-1.

Sunday, November 29 has four stakes. They are the Grade I, $300,000 Matriarch for fillies and mares at a mile on the turf, the Grade III Cecil B. DeMille, the Grade III Bayakoa on the main track, and the $100,000 Stormy Liberal turf sprint at five furlongs. Del Mar also lists closing day with mandatory payouts on all wagers.

The heavy turf schedule is deliberate. In the club's announcement, senior vice president for racing and racing secretary David Jerkens explained the approach:

"We've got one of the best turf courses in the country, and we put a real emphasis on it for our fall meet. Our lineup is the best in America during that period."

One date correction. A later Del Mar feature published August 27 says the meet opens Friday, November 7, and lists several stakes a day off. The club's August 13 release, its ticket pages and its racing calendar all say November 6, and every date in this post follows those.

After the last race

The village's holiday season starts a week after closing day. On Sunday, December 6, the Del Mar Village Association holds Winter Taste & Sip downtown from 1 to 4 p.m. and North Pole By The Sea from 1 to 5 p.m. The Holiday Tree Lighting follows at 5 p.m. at the Jim Watkins Amphitheater at L'Auberge Del Mar. The Fairgrounds then hosts Coastal Christmas on select nights from December 11 to 26, with a Holiday Light Trail, skating and a Holiday Market. The String Cheese Incident plays the same grounds on December 11 and 12.

Fall racing is one of my favorite parts of living and working in Del Mar, and I'm happy to share how I plan Thanksgiving week around the track, from the Fun Run to the last race before dinner. If you'd like to talk it over, or about anything else on your list this season, Lorelei Nielsen is always glad to hear from you. Let's Connect.