Del Mar releases stakes schedule for 2025 fall meet
Predictable. It’s not a word often associated with horse racing. But in many ways the fall stakes schedule is about as predictable as you can get at Del Mar. Every year the racing office puts out its list of stakes races for the fall meet, which opens Thursday. And for the most part every year there are very few changes.
“I think you don’t change things just for the purpose of changing,” racing secretary David Jerkens said. “If something’s working, why tinker with it.
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It’s by design and is intended to appeal to trainers who like to make plans for their horses months ahead of time.
“You do like to have that consistency where people know ‘Okay, the Matriarch is Thanksgiving week,’” Jerkens said. “When I talk to trainers back east in the summer or the spring, before our summer meet, they’re already thinking of those particular races.”
So, if you have a good 2-year-old you know as a trainer or owner there’s the Bob Hope (G3) in the middle of November at Del Mar. If you have a talented grass mare you can always count on the Red Carpet (G3) the weekend before Thanksgiving and if she’s really good, you have the Matriarch (G1) on closing day. Many an Eclipse Award hopeful has counted on the fall turf festival to get-in that one last race before the end of the year.
This year the fall meet stakes schedule consists of 20 races with total prize money of $3.15 million. That, of course, does not include the Breeders’ Cup, which will cover the first weekend of racing this fall at Del Mar. The championship of horse racing features 14 races, all worth $1 million or more. Five on Friday and nine more on Saturday. There will be five undercard races, three on Friday and two on Saturday.
The fall meet stakes schedule begins with the Let It Ride, a $100,000 overnight stakes for 3-year-olds going a mile on the turf, part of the opening day card on Thursday. Then after the feast of world-class stakes action over Breeders’ Cup weekend, racing returns for the second week of the fall meet with a pair of stakes races. The Chosen Vron Stakes, formerly known as the Cary Grant, will be run on Nov. 8. The Betty Grable for California-bred fillies and mares is the feature on Nov. 9.
Week three of the fall meet features two more stakes: the Desi Arnaz for 2-year-old fillies on Nov. 15 and the Bob Hope on Nov. 16.
By the time we reach the next to last weekend of the five-week Bing Crosby season the stakes schedule is left with nothing but graded stakes races, with one exception. Week four is highlighted by the Native Diver (G3) for 3-year-olds and up going a mile and an eighth on the main track on Nov. 22 followed by the Red Carpet (G3) on Sunday, November 23.
That leaves the final week of racing at Del Mar this year and it could be argued the racing office has saved the best for last. It’s the annual fall turf festival which attracts horses from across the country, hoping to nail down one last graded stakes to close out the year.
The festival begins the Friday after Thanksgiving with the Hollywood Turf Cup (G2), a mile and a half marathon for 3-year-olds and up. The next day, Saturday November 29 there are three stakes races: the G1 Hollywood Derby; the G2 Seabiscuit and the G3 Jimmy Durante for 2-year-old fillies.
That brings us to closing day and the four remaining stakes races. The Bayakoa (G3) represents the one and only change from last year’s fall stakes schedule. The race for fillies and mares was part of the Breeders’ Cup undercard in 2024 but this year it helps anchor the conclusion of the fall turf festival and the 2025 fall meet. It joins the Matriarch (G1), the Cecil B. DeMille (G3) and the $100,000 Stormy Liberal turf sprint on closing day.
All told there are 11 graded stakes races this fall and 12 of the stakes races will be run on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course. After opening week, racing will be run on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through November with first post at 3:30 p.m. EST.