This is a season of change in horse racing, and we’re not just talking about the weather. Horseplayers see that change is in the air on several racing circuits around the country as many high-profile race meets come to an end just as new ones are ready to get started. Here is what’s happening in horse racing with Thanksgiving approaching as the calendar gets ready to flip to December.

Aqueduct

Aqueduct’s fall meet runs through Dec. 14 before taking an 11-day holiday break from Dec. 15-25. Racing will resume for a week and the fall season will wrap up on Dec. 28. New York’s biggest weekend of fall racing revolves around Aqueduct’s blowout six-stakes program on Saturday, Dec. 6 featuring the Cigar Mile. The Dec. 6 supporting card will include five stakes topped by two important races for 2-year-olds, the Remsen Stakes, and the Demoiselle Stakes, plus the Elite Power Stakes which has been moved to this date and renamed after the recent two-time champion sprinter. The Remsen and Demoiselle are qualifying points races for next spring’s Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve and Longines Kentucky Oaks, respectively.

Racing at Turfway Park. (Eclipse Sportswire)

Kentucky

The Churchill Downs fall meet comes to an end on Nov. 30, and closing weekend at Churchill promises to be a doozy with a bunch of the season’s high-profile stakes races featured every day of Thanksgiving weekend including the Falls City Handicap and the Cardinal Stakes on Thursday, the Clark Stakes Presented by Norton Healthcare and the Mrs. Revere Stakes on Friday, the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes and the Golden Rod Stakes on Saturday, and the Cherokee Mile Stakes on Sunday. The Kentucky Jockey Club and Golden Rod are 2026 Derby and Oaks preps, respectively. After Churchill Downs closes for the season, Kentucky racing will continue at Turfway Park, which opens its holiday season on Dec. 3. Live racing on Turfway’s all-weather track will be hosted on a mostly Wednesday-through-Saturday basis through Dec. 28 – and then Turfway will start a winter meet on the same schedule through March 28.

Southern California

The Del Mar fall meet concludes on Nov. 30 and there will be nearly a month in between Del Mar’s closing and the traditional Santa Anita Park opening day on Friday, Dec. 26. Del Mar will go out with a bang with seven graded stakes closing weekend topped by the Hollywood Derby on Saturday, Nov. 29 and the Matriarch Stakes on Sunday, Nov. 30. Los Alamitos will help bridge the gap with a brief two-weekend meet from Dec. 5-14 highlighted by the Los Alamitos Futurity (Kentucky Derby prep) and Starlet Stakes (Kentucky Oaks prep).

Tampa Bay Downs

Tampa Bay Downs begins a special 100^th anniversary season of racing on Nov. 19 and will host 90 days of live racing until May 3. Racing for 2025-26 will start out on a mostly Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday basis, with Sundays being added beginning on Dec. 21. The meet’s signature race and main Kentucky Derby prep, the ESMARK Tampa Bay Derby, will be run on Saturday, March 7.

Fair Grounds

Fair Grounds’ 2025-26 race meet is off and running on Nov. 20 for what will be the historic track’s 154^th  racing season. The 70-raceday season will continue until closing day March 22. The highlight day of the meet comes on March 21 with the running of the $1 million TwinSpires.com Louisiana Derby headlining a card loaded with eight stakes races. In all, the New Orleans-area track will host 56 stakes this season worth a total of $8.65 million.

Click image to purchase shirt.

Gulfstream Park

The Gulfstream Park winter “Championship Meet” featuring many of the top trainers and jockeys from the summer New York racing circuit seems to start earlier each year and this year opening day is set for Thanksgiving, Nov. 27. The first portion of the season will run on a four-day a week schedule Thursdays through Sundays, with Wednesdays being added starting on Jan. 7 for five days of racing weekly through the end of the Championship meet on March 29. A couple of Gulfstream’s biggest days will be Pegasus World Cup Day, a day of 10 stakes races on Jan. 24, and Curlin Florida Derby Day featuring 10 stakes races on March 28.

Oaklawn Park

The 2025-26 Oaklawn Park racing season begins Dec. 12 and will open on mostly a four-day-a-week calendar up through Kentucky Derby Day on May 2 with a new, nearly four-week break scheduled from Jan. 5-29. The 64-raceday dirt-track-only season will feature some of the most prominent and lucrative races on the road to the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve with a 3-year-old stakes schedule that includes the $1 million Southwest Stakes on Jan. 31 and the $1 million Rebel Stakes on March 1 leading up to the $1.5 million Arkansas Derby on March 28.

Woodbine

The lengthy 2025 Woodbine racing season in Canada officially comes to an end with closing day on Sunday, Dec. 14. Racing at Woodbine is expected to resume in April 2026.