Del Mar will stage a $2.1 million stakes programme during its 13th Bing Crosby Season, with a strong turf emphasis and two Grade I features set to headline the four-week meeting from Friday, November 6 through Sunday, November 29.
Del Mar Bing Crosby Season 2026 will feature 15 stakes races across the meeting.
The headline events will come on the final weekend, with the $300,000 Hollywood Derby for three-year-olds scheduled for Saturday, November 28, followed a day later by the $300,000 Matriarch Stakes for fillies and mares.
The Hollywood Derby will be contested over one mile and one-eighth on Del Mar’s Jimmy Durante Turf Course, while the Matriarch Stakes will be run at one mile on the same celebrated turf circuit.
The meeting will follow a Friday-to-Sunday format for most of the month, with Thanksgiving Day providing an additional Thursday fixture on November 26. That eight-race programme will begin at 11 a.m. and is scheduled to finish at approximately 2 p.m., allowing the traditional holiday afternoon to continue away from the racecourse.
Turf racing will remain central to the autumn programme, with nine of the 15 stakes scheduled for the grass.
The opening weekend will feature two $100,000 Cal-bred stakes. The Chosen Vron Stakes for three-year-olds and older runners will be held on Saturday, November 7, while the Betty Grable Stakes for fillies and mares will follow on Sunday, November 8. Both races will be run over seven furlongs.
The programme will gather further momentum during Thanksgiving weekend. Friday, November 27 will bring the Grade II, $200,000 Hollywood Turf Cup, a one-and-a-half-mile turf test for three-year-olds and older runners. The following day, the Grade II, $200,000 Seabiscuit Handicap will cover one mile and one-sixteenth on the grass.
Thanksgiving Day itself will be anchored by the $200,000 Red Carpet Stakes for fillies and mares over one mile and three-eighths on turf.
The strong grass programme reflects Del Mar’s established reputation as one of the leading venues for late-season turf racing in the United States. The course will provide the setting for the majority of the meeting’s major stakes, giving horses targeting important end-of-year races another opportunity to compete at a high level.
The season will also continue Del Mar’s long association with Hollywood and the entertainment world. Several stakes carry the names of figures connected with the track’s colourful history, including Betty Grable, Desi Arnaz, Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante and Cecil B. DeMille.
That theme has long been part of the Del Mar identity, dating back to the racecourse’s founder, singer and actor Bing Crosby, and it will again run through the autumn stakes programme.
Daily first post will be 12:30 p.m. throughout the meeting. Friday cards will generally consist of eight races, while Saturday and Sunday programmes will feature nine.
With two Grade I races closing the season, a pair of Grade II contests and a substantial collection of turf stakes, Del Mar’s November schedule will provide a strong conclusion to the year’s racing at the seaside venue.
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