Driving on the 5 through Del Mar, it’s hard to miss the Del Mar Racetrack to the west. You may wonder what horse racing and live music have to do with each other. So did I .
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, horse racing had become not only a popular sporting event but also a social venue. It also was an informal way to gamble. In 1909, California passed the Walker-Otis Anti-Race Track Gambling Bill, which made betting on horses illegal. Soon after in 1918, the Eighteenth Amendment better known as “Prohibition” dried out sporting events. Southern Californians started to cross the border to the Agua Caliente racetrack in Tijuana for all their gambling and drinking adventures.
Enter the Great Depression of the 1930s, and people started to rethink their outlook on horse racing and alcohol. Both were seen as possible sources of revenue, if only they were legalized, regulated and then taxed. In 1933 the California State Legislature passed Proposition 3, legalizing and regulating horse racing. The same year, the Twenty-first Amendment was passed, repealing Prohibition. The California legislature earmarked some of the income from horse racing to fund state and local fairs, in an effort to promote California’s agricultural economy. This move would link horse racing and the San Diego County fair for the next century.
As racetracks started to reappear in California, San Diego sought out its own location to combine the county fair and horse racing. Initially planned for Crown Point, the racetrack and fairgrounds finally found their home in the San Dieguito River Valley where the old Del Mar golf course once stood. And so the Del Mar Fairgrounds was born.
Fast forward to 2017. The Del Mar Fairgrounds is owned by the state of California and managed by the 22nd Agricultural District Association. Each year the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club leases the location for their horse races. Over the past decade, attendance at the races has been declining steadily. A combination of aging aficionados and bad publicity surrounding the deaths of 17 horses during last year’s season, this decrease in attendance has demanded innovation to increase revenues, innovations such as Food and Beer festivals, family days at the track, and the Del Mar Summer Concert Series.
The Concert Series brings live music to the races, every Friday and Saturday night after the final race. The concert is free with admission to the racetrack, making this one of the most affordable concert series in San Diego. This specific Saturday, Billy Currington headlined the show. It felt as though every single one of San Diego’s country music fans had shown up to see him, as we were sardined in front of the stage. The concert was amazing though, with the setting sun and ocean as a backdrop. He kept us all belting at the top of our lungs, far into his encore performance, as we danced the evening away.
So there you have it, horse racing and live music in San Diego. Who knew. Thanks to Katie for sacrificing her personal space radius to join us in the sea of sardines, Sean for fighting through the crowds with beer in hand, and Jenna for not letting me get into a fist fight with the drunk guy throwing his beer next to us. People are Crazy.