V W.
Yelp
First time experiencing Opening Day at Del Mar Racetrack! Every year I would see opening day on the local news and admire the hats and outfits, so I finally made the effort and bought tickets a few months in advance. The woman on the phone was patient and helpful as I had no idea where to sit or how it all worked.
WE ARRIVED EARLY
We arrived at 11:30am -- about 2.5 hours in advance of the first race. Traffic and parking was a breeze at this time. (Parking was $15 in 2024). This gave us time to park, walk to the entrance, check out the hats and outfits, walk around, take photos, visit the gift shop and decide on food options before we took our seats in the stands. There were a few protesters on the parking lot perimeter, which made things slightly uncomfortable.
FOOD AND DRINK
If you're budget or health conscious, I would advise bringing your own pack lunch, which I wish we'd done. The sit-down restaurant was full. It was a little tough finding the different walk-up counters that served food as they're sporadically spread out throughout the buildings. Pizza was $14 for a SLICE. We paid $17 for a turkey sandwich and $15 for a beer. We ate our sandwiches out of the plastic container in the stands. We later went to buy a soft serve ice-cream, but unfortunately the machine was broken. :(
THE RACES
The actual races are kind of boring. It's a bit like a ride at an amusement park -- you wait a long time in between for a quick burst of excitement. The time between races can be spent people-watching, eating, drinking, placing bets or retrieving your winnings. We placed small ($2-$5) bets at the windows with the real tellers, which could be very time consuming, waiting, as lines were long. I believe you could also make bets at self-serve machines or on the phone app, but we felt intimidated by that. When I bet money on races, the horses would lose, but when I did it 'for fun', not betting money, the horses won. Figures!
DO YOUR RESEARCH
I would advise you do a bit of research into horse betting before you go, so you know the difference between 'Place' and 'Show', etc. and how to tell the teller your bet. (i.e., Horse number, race number, etc.) It would be nice if they explained this in the booklet.
HOW LONG TO STAY?
We stayed for 9 races, which was over the span of approximately 4.5 hours. You can leave after one race or stay all the way til the end. (Eleven races when we were there).
Exiting the racetrack parking lot and getting to the freeway was easy at around 6:30pm.
A ONE-TIME BUCKET LIST EVENT FOR ME
It was quite the spectacle seeing everyone dressed up and an experience to say we've been, but I don't feel the need to go to opening day again. It was also quite pricey at around $80 a ticket, $15 for parking and expensive food and drink. (Not to mention the betting, where sky's the limit!) It's honestly one big booze fest with a bunch of pretty people. I can't imagine the drunks on the road afterwards. If you've never been, it's definitely a San Diego bucket list item.