The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) on Thursday approved a slate of 2026 Thoroughbred race dates that will closely resemble the state's 2025 schedule.
Over the last decade or so, hammering out the state's annual race-dates calendar has usually been a long, controversial and often argumentative process that gets drawn out over many monthly commission and sub-committee meetings, with stakeholders often testifying and advocating for hours on end and some entities not pleased with their eventual allotments.
But with the demise of the entire Northern California racing circuit, and Southern California's two remaining main tracks–Santa Anita Park and Del Mar Thoroughbred Club–seemingly satisfied with the current template, the CHRB on Oct. 16 compressed that entire decision-making process into just two minutes, with zero public commentary and a unanimous 4-0 decision that approved the schedule that had been presented to the board.
“Southern California, for the first time, actually, since I started this job in 2020, has agreed on a calendar,” said the CHRB's executive director, Scott Chaney, prior to the vote. “It will largely mirror what this year looked like, with the exception of the Breeders' Cup week [at Del Mar in 2025], which will revert back to Santa Anita, as is normally the case.”
Bill Nader, the president and chief executive officer of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, submitted a letter included in the meeting packet that stated his organization supported the proposed schedule.
After the vote, at the general public commentary session near the end of the meeting, longtime California horse owner George Schmitt gave an update on initiatives of the company called Bernal Park Racing that he had formed with the owner/breeder John Harris, who died this past summer.
Earlier in 2025, Bernal mounted an unsuccessful bid to secure race dates in Northern California with the aim of putting together an organization to make personnel and a day-to-day racing infrastructure services available to any fair in the state that wanted to use those resources to run a meet.
“Since I was last with you, you know that my partner, John Harris, died,” Schmitt said. “The last time I was with John, I promised John that I would continue to do what he and I were working on to bring horse racing back into the county fairs in Northern California.”
With no Northern California racing in 2025, Schmitt cited a siphoning-off of California-bred horses to nearby states like Washington and Arizona, and what he said was the “lowest number of mares bred in the history of California since we started keeping track of how many mares are bred.”
Schmitt said that the number of mares bred is “barely over 1,000. In large part, in my opinion, it's because breeders in Northern California have decided [not to] breed their mares this year. We need to figure out a way to bring horse racing back into the county fairs in the North, in my opinion, so that people with lesser horses don't feel obligated to ship them [out of state].”
Schmitt said, “I think that we need to take a look at what happened this year in California. I know that the handle was up somewhat in Southern California. But if you look at the total state, there was no handle in Northern California. [Statewide] handle is way down by almost all the money that has been typically bet in Northern California at the fair races.
“I'll be back. I am working with significant sponsors for horse racing in Northern California. I am working with five county fairs. You all know Sacramento has destroyed their track and has decided they'll never run again. But there still are five racecourses and county fairs that are willing to run. I'm trying to get them all together. I hope to have everything done by the end of this month, and be with you next month requesting dates for the county fairs in the North again…
“I know everybody's going to say, 'Where's the money coming from?'” Schmitt said. “Well, I don't think I need to do more than tell you I have the money, and I will do that before I come before you. I still have significant amounts of money in Bernal Park Racing, because John and I put it in, and it's just sitting there…
“Let's figure out how to get this industry working all over the state of California again,” Schmitt said.
The approved 2026 calendar is below, listed in blocks of dates and not actual racing days.
Santa Anita: Dec. 17, 2025-June 16, 2026.
LA County Fair at Los Alamitos: June 17-July 7
Del Mar: July 8-Sept. 8
Los Alamitos: Sept. 9-22
Santa Anita: Sept. 23-Nov. 3
Del Mar: Nov. 4-Dec. 1
Los Alamitos: Dec. 2-15
CHRB vice chair Oscar Gonzales and commissioners Dennis Alfieri, Brenda Washington Davis and Peter Stern all voted in favor of the 2026 dates package.
CHRB chairman Gregory Ferraro, DVM, and commissioners Thomas Hudnut and Damascus Castellanos were not present at the meeting.
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