Del Mar has hosted the Breeders' Cup twice before, but this is the first time that the racetrack will hold the event in back-to-back years.
“Breeders' Cup is for us in racing, the biggest day — the biggest two days in racing,” said Joe Harper CEO of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club.
He said the event is much more than a single race.
“We all think of the Kentucky Derby as being the day, but that's one race for 3-year-old (horses), where Breeders’ Cup is some 14 races for different calibers of horses, all grade ones,” Harper said.
It's currently the middle of the fall season for the 2023 Del Mar Racing calendar and fans were a bit surprised, but excited about the upcoming international events.
“We came here last time. We didn't have a lot of racing luck, but we had so much fun,” said fan Ron Ferrise about the previous Breeders’ Cup event in Del Mar.
He and his wife Michelle traveled in from Las Vegas to watch the races on Friday.
“We’re going to be here next year and the year after, God willing,” Ferrise said.
More than 70,000 fans attended when the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club held the Breeders’ Cup back in 2017.
The Thoroughbred Club also hosted a pandemic-limited cup in 2021, when over 45,000 people came to watch the races.
“Any event like that — the Breeders’ Cup, an All Star game, the Super Bowl — one of the great things it does is it brings new dollars into our region. Those are people who might not otherwise visit San Diego,” said Erick Bruvold, CEO of the San Diego North Economic Development Council.
The 2017 event generated an estimated $96 million across the county, according to a study by Sports Management Research Institute.
“These are big income people. So they're going to be spending a lot on hotels, they're going to be spending a lot on going to restaurants, the betting is going to be huge,” said USD professor of economics Alan Gin.
In addition to the financial gains, Bruvold said the timing of the cup in the fall makes a big difference.
“This way we bring tourists in during a time when traditionally our hotels don't run at full occupancy,” he said. “So those new dollars that are going to come into the region are really additive to our economic prosperity here in North County.”
Breeders' Cup 2024 will take place on Nov. 1 and 2. The 2025 cup is slated for Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 at the Del Mar racetrack.
“It is a big deal,” Gin said. “Having it two years in a row will just reinforce the image of San Diego in consecutive years and that'll be a benefit to the region.”
