The Bing Crosby fall meet opens Friday, November 6, and closes Sunday, November 29. That makes 13 racing days, and all but one fall on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. The exception is Thanksgiving. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Del Mar is hosting a holiday program for the first time in several years.
So for the next five weeks, Del Mar's activity is concentrated in three days of each week. The track's busiest days line up with the village's Saturday market, a Friday morning community event and a new Honor Bar that pours its brunch cocktail only on weekends. From Monday through Wednesday, the village has none of the meet's events and none of its traffic. Below is the month in the order you'll live it.
The four racing weekends
The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club's November calendar lists racing on these dates:
- November 6–8. Opening Day on Friday. College Day and Data On Us both fall on Saturday, November 7. College Day gives students with a valid ID free admission and seating. Data On Us lets bettors sign up at dmtc.com for free handicapping information.
- November 13–15. Uncorked Derby Days is Saturday, November 14. It's a 21-and-over wine tasting in the Seaside Cabana with a Derby Dame & Dapper Dan Fashion Contest. Tickets cost $84 to $100, and part of the proceeds goes to Urban Surf 4 Kids.
- November 20–22. The new Taco & Beer Festival runs Saturday, November 21, from noon to 4 p.m. on the Stretch Run Apron West. On Sunday, November 22, a new, unwrapped toy or a cash donation gets you in free as part of the Toys for Tots campaign.
- November 26–29. This is the only four-day stretch of the meet. It starts on Thanksgiving Thursday and runs through Sunday.
The calendar also puts most of the money at the end. The meet carries $2.1 million in stakes races, and eight of those stakes, including two Grade I events, are packed into the FanDuel Racing Turf Festival over the season's final four days. As Del Mar's senior vice president for racing, David Jerkens, told the Union-Tribune, "We've got one of the best turf courses in the country, and we put a real emphasis on it for our fall meet." On the racing calendar, Thanksgiving weekend is the high point of the meet.
The perks are aimed at people who live nearby
The summer meet relies on crowds from out of town. The fall meet's standing offers mostly reward people who can come back week after week. The Union-Tribune lists three:
- Opening Day, November 6. Free admission for members of Diamond Club, the track's free membership program.
- Every Friday. Seniors' Days. Guests 62 and older get free admission, a seat and a racing program.
- Every Sunday. Free & Fun is back. Club members get free admission, a seat and a program, plus 25 percent off Brandt Beef hot dogs, sodas and 20-ounce Michelob ULTRA drafts.
That covers every Friday and Sunday on the racing calendar, so a free membership pays off most for someone who can drive over on short notice. The new Taco & Beer Festival is set up the same way. It's sold to anyone already at the races that day. Five 7-ounce drink tickets of beer, seltzer or cider come with a souvenir cup for $17.50, tacos from area vendors are sold separately, and Patrón is running a tequila sampling.
Thanksgiving is the one weekday on the calendar
Thursday, November 26, is the day the meet steps off its Friday-to-Sunday pattern. It's also the day that shows how the track is fitting into local life this year.
Before the races
The morning starts with the Family Fun Run, a 1-mile lap around the oval. Registration opens at 7 a.m. with games, face painting, holiday crafts and free doughnuts. The run starts at 8 a.m., and finishers can get a winner's circle photo and a souvenir medallion. Entry costs $16 to $24, and proceeds go to the Therapeutic Riding program at Helen Woodward Animal Center.
The racing itself
Gates open at 9:30 a.m. and first post is at 11 a.m. The eight-race card features the $100,000 Red Carpet Stakes for fillies and mares 3 and older, run at 1 3/8 miles on the turf. The track's August schedule release puts the end of the card at about 2 p.m. The racing ends with most of the afternoon left for dinner at home.
If you'd rather someone else handle the meal, the Turf Club is serving a three-course holiday meal with bottomless mimosas for $184 per person, with reservations through dmtc.com.
"We're excited to have racing back on Thanksgiving."
That's Chris Bahr, Del Mar's director of events and promotions, speaking to the Union-Tribune. The rest of the holiday weekend has something for each kind of guest. Family Fun Day on Friday, November 27, brings rock climbing walls, an inflatable game zone and mini golf. Saturday's Betting Challenge has a $3,000 buy-in and an expected $125,000 in prizes.
The village lines up with the same weekends
The Friday-to-Sunday pattern isn't limited to the track. The village calendar follows it too.
The Del Mar Village Association is holding its Breast Cancer Cheering Station downtown on Friday, November 13, from 8 to 9:30 a.m. That's the second Friday of the meet. The Del Mar Farmers Market runs year-round on Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m. in the lower outdoor lot at 1050 Camino Del Mar by the Civic Center. All four Saturdays of the meet are market days. The Taco & Beer Festival on November 21 runs exactly the same hours, noon to 4.
The village's newest restaurant is set up for the same days. Honor Bar opened this year at 1404 Camino Del Mar. Eater San Diego dates the opening to August. According to the Union-Tribune's opening coverage, its Kickstart, Honor Bar's version of a Bloody Mary, is poured on weekends only.
Before your first visit, it helps to know what has changed on that corner. Honor Bar comes from Hillstone Restaurant Group, the company behind Houston's and Rutherford Grill. It sits on the site of Bully's, which closed in 2017 after a 48-year run. The old building was demolished and the new one was built from the ground up. Here's what the Union-Tribune reports about how it runs:
- Open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- No reservations, though you can call ahead to get on the wait list.
- Cashless.
- The room is set up for parties of four or fewer.
- A posted dress code rules out sportswear, backwards hats and flip-flops. The full guidelines are on honorbar.com.
- Parking is below the restaurant, reached from the alley off 13th Street.
On a racing Saturday, that alley entrance is the most useful thing on the list. The menu has shareable starters like deviled eggs, Osaka-style pressed sushi, the Honor Burger and a French dip.
Pacifica Del Mar's last full month
A few blocks north, November also brings a farewell. Pacifica Del Mar opened in 1989 as one of the first businesses in the newly built Del Mar Plaza, at the corner of Camino Del Mar and 15th Street. The Coast News reported in June that it will close in December after the Plaza chose not to renew its lease. The restaurant's own May 15 statement asked guests "to visit us one last time before we close our doors." Some dishes have been on the menu since the first day, including the sugar-spiced salmon.
November is the last full month on the calendar for that visit, and Pacifica's address puts it right where the fall weekends play out. In the Coast News account, the restaurant has long been a stop for people heading to the Del Mar Racetrack. In June, the Plaza said a new restaurant operator would take the space and that it would announce the name in the coming months.
Other spaces at the Plaza are changing too. Pacifica Breeze Cafe, the separate breakfast-and-coffee spot, closed in late April. In an August 11 announcement, Del Mar Plaza named La La Land Café, a coffee-and-matcha café, for that mezzanine space. Construction and opening dates haven't been set. Upstairs, Desserts By Clément took over the former Paris en Rose space in Suite 304 this summer. It's open daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., which makes it the Plaza's simplest weeknight stop.
The first Sunday after the meet
Once the meet closes on November 29, the village gets its next big weekend a week later. On Sunday, December 6, the Del Mar Village Association holds Winter Taste & Sip downtown from 1 to 4 p.m., with tastings, local beverage stops and live music. That same afternoon, North Pole by the Sea runs from 1 to 5 p.m. with letters to Santa, carolers and costumed characters, followed by the holiday tree lighting at 5 p.m. at the Jim Watkins Amphitheater at L'Auberge Del Mar.
That's the next time the village calendar is full without the track. Until then, the month's events fall on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Thanksgiving Day.
Our team has lived through a lot of fall meets, opening weekends and farewell dinners on Camino Del Mar. If you're planning around the fall meet or just want to talk about the changes in the village, Maxine & Marti Gellens would be glad to hear from you.
