Horse Racing Tracks in the US by State

Thoroughbreds raced live at 46 tracks in 24 states in 2026. Kentucky has the most, five, and Louisiana is next with four. A few tracks race almost all year, Parx and Penn National in Pennsylvania and Charles Town in West Virginia among them, but most race in meets of a few weeks to a few months, so a track near you may be dark when you look it up.

The table below gives each track's city, the surfaces it races on, when it races, its biggest races and its official website, as of 1 October 2026. It covers Thoroughbred flat racing only: harness tracks and Quarter Horse tracks are left out, and a track that runs both breeds says so in its row. Filter by state to find the tracks near you.

The starting point is the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's list of tracks racing under its rules, 39 tracks in 19 states. Louisiana, Texas, West Virginia, Nebraska and Colorado tracks race outside that list and were added from their state regulators. Every track was then checked for live racing in 2026 on its own site or its state's 2026 race dates order, such as the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation's calendar and the California Horse Racing Board's allocation. Where neither could be read, a racing news report of the track's announced dates was used.

Surfaces come from the track's own description where it gives one, otherwise from a reference source; a blank means nothing we could read states it. When it races gives the months and, where the source has them, the 2026 dates. Biggest races are the track's highest-graded stakes in the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association's 2026 list of graded stakes, with G1 the top grade; "None graded" means the track has no graded race this year. Dates move from year to year, so check the track's site before you travel.

Most American races are run on dirt, and 26 of the 46 tracks in the table also have a turf (grass) course, usually laid inside the dirt oval. The third kind is synthetic: Tapeta, the brand in use at the tracks here, is a mixture of sand, rubber and fibre with a wax coating (Presque Isle Downs). Turfway Park and Presque Isle Downs race on Tapeta alone, Gulfstream Park has it beside its dirt and turf, and the rebuilt Belmont Park added a synthetic track when it reopened on 18 September 2026 (NYRA). Kentucky Downs is the odd one out: turf only, on a course that is not an oval.

The surface matters to anyone reading past performances, because many horses run better on one than another, and the same surface plays differently from day to day with the weather. Track handicapping for beginners covers how surface and condition show up in the form, and how to spot a track bias covers the days when one part of the track is better than the rest.

The Kentucky Derby is at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May; it runs 1 May in 2027 (Kentucky Derby). The Preakness, normally at Pimlico in Baltimore, was run at Laurel Park in 2026 while Pimlico is rebuilt, and the Belmont Stakes was run at Saratoga in 2026 while Belmont Park was rebuilt; it returns to the new Belmont Park on 5 June 2027 (NYRA). The 2026 Breeders' Cup is at Keeneland on 30 and 31 October, and the 2027 edition goes to Belmont Park; the Breeders' Cup races and schedule has the full card. Saratoga's summer meet (3 July to 7 September in 2026) and Del Mar's (July to early September) are the two long summer stands most fans travel for.

Older lists still carry these, so they are not in the table:

• Aqueduct (Queens, New York): Raced until 28 June 2026, then closed for good; downstate New York racing moved to the rebuilt Belmont Park (source).
• Hawthorne Race Course (Stickney, Illinois): Last live racing day 19 July 2026; sold out of bankruptcy to a non-racing buyer and closing (source).
• Pimlico (Baltimore, Maryland): Closed for rebuilding, no racing in 2026; the 2026 Preakness was run at Laurel Park and Pimlico is due back in 2027 (source).
• Golden Gate Fields (Berkeley, California): Final day 9 June 2024 (source).
• Arlington Park (Arlington Heights, Illinois): Last race 25 September 2021 (source).
• Northern California fairs (Pleasanton, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, Ferndale, Fresno): No Thoroughbred dates on the California Horse Racing Board's 2026 calendar (February 2026 edition) (source).