Opening Day for the 2025 live racing season at Delaware Park has been set for Wednesday, May 14. 

The Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission-approved calendar for the 88^th live racing season will feature 75 days with closing day on Saturday, October 11.

Live racing will be conducted on a Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday weekly format for most of the 2025 meet. Ten cards will be presented on the following Fridays: May 30, June 6, June 13, July 4, July 11, July 18, July 25, August 1, August 8 and August 15. Live racing is not scheduled on Thursday, May 15, Wednesday, September 17 and Wednesday, September 24. Daily first race post time is set for 12:45 p.m. 

Additionally, a pair of special Sunday cards will be presented in September as part of weekends featuring multiple stakes.

On September 14, the Delaware Certified Thoroughbred Program (DCTP) will be showcased with four six-furlong, $100,000 races restricted to Delaware Bred or Certified horses: the First State Stakes for 2-year-olds, the Small Wonder Stakes for 2-year-old fillies, the Tax-Free Distaff for fillies and mares, and the New Castle for 3-year-olds and up.  The 33^rd annual Owners’ Day will be on Saturday, September 13. 

The Delaware Handicap, which had traditionally been run in early July and was recently downgraded from a Grade 2 to a Grade 3 by the American Graded Stakes Committee, will be run on September 28. The filly-and-mare classic will be run at 1 1/8 miles for only the second time in race history and have a purse of $400,000. The supporting features of the Delaware Handicap card will be the 1 1/8-mile, $200,000 Battery Park for 3-year-olds and up and the six-furlong, $100,000 Wilmington for 3-year-olds and up.

On Saturday, September 27, the featured races are: the mile-and-an-eighth $150,000 Kent Stakes on the turf for 3-year-olds, the mile-and-an-eighth $150,000 Christiana Stakes on the turf for 3-year-old fillies, and the six-furlong, $150,000 Endine Stakes for fillies and mares.

For the first time, the track will offer a Delaware Derby. The mile-and-a-sixteenth test with a purse of $200,000 will be run on the same card as Grade 3, $300,000 Delaware Oaks, at that same distance, on Saturday, June 14. The supporting features on the Delaware Derby/Oaks card are the 1 1/16-mile, $150,000 Obeah Stakes for fillies and mares 3-year-olds and upward and the six-furlong $100,000 Alapocas Run for 3-year-olds and upward.

Eighteen stakes worth a total of $2.925 million, including the mile-and-three-eighths Grade 3, $250,000 Robert G. Dick Memorial on the turf for fillies and mares 3-year-olds and up to be run on Saturday, July 5, are scheduled.

2025 Delaware Park Stakes Schedule

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