The Del Mar Fairgrounds is an event venue in Del Mar, California, United States. It hosts the annual San Diego County Fair.
- Venue
- Del Mar Fairgrounds
- Town
- California, US
The Del Mar Fairgrounds is an event venue in Del Mar, California, United States. It hosts the annual San Diego County Fair. The venue sits on a 370-acre (1.5 km2) property along the Pacific Ocean coastline. It includes the Del Mar Racetrack, built in 1936 by the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, with founding member Bing Crosby providing leadership. The Del Mar Fairgrounds and Del Mar Thoroughbred Club share one address for the complex. The site is owned by the State of California and is managed by the 22nd District Agricultural Association, a state agency that hosts more than 300 annual events. Its staff organizes major annual events and runs Surfside Race Place, the year-round satellite horse racing facility. The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club leases the facilities for their live meets each year. After the opening of the Santa Anita Park racetrack in Arcadia, California on Christmas Day 1934, William A. Quigley, a resident of La Jolla, formed the idea of starting a racetrack on the Del Mar Fairgrounds. He pitched this to Bing Crosby, and they founded the Del Mar Turf Club on May 6, 1936. Quigley was General Manager of the racetrack until his death at the age of 49 in 1942. When the Del Mar Racetrack opened in 1937, Bing Crosby was at the gate to personally greet the fans. On August 12, 1938, the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club hosted a $25,000 winner-take-all match race between Charles S. Howard's Seabiscuit and the Binglin Stable's colt, Ligaroti. In an era when horse racing ranked second in popularity with Americans to Major League Baseball, the match race was the first nationwide broadcast of a thoroughbred race by NBC radio. In the race, Seabiscuit was ridden by jockey George Woolf and Ligaroti by Noel Richardson. In front of a record crowd that helped make Del Mar race track a success, Seabiscuit won by a nose. By 1940, Del Mar became a summer playground for many Hollywood stars. Between 1942 and 1944, the facility was closed due to the Second World War. Initially, the grounds