Yesterday we received a mail from one of our visitors saying he was watching Del Mar horse racing on his phone through a Telegram link someone shared in a group, and now that link is not working anymore. He asked if we know any other way to watch it on mobile.
The Del Mar summer meet started July 17 and runs through September 7 this year, so only a few days of the season are left by the time you are reading this. Instead of replying to him individually we thought it is better to just put this out as a post so anyone with the same problem can find it. Not everyone knows how to find these apps on their own, some people genuinely need a hand with this stuff and that is fine, that is what we are here for.
We went through the Play Store and checked what apps actually let you watch Del Mar races live on your phone and which ones are just listings with no real streaming. Out of everything we tested, three apps stood out and two of them are completely free to use.
Del Mar Has an Official YouTube Channel and It Is Probably the Easiest Option
This is what we would tell someone who called asking how to watch races on their phone without installing anything new or creating accounts.
Del Mar Thoroughbred Club runs an official YouTube channel where they upload individual race videos, full race day replays, and all the stakes coverage including the big Pacific Classic card. The 2026 playlists have been updated throughout the summer meet and the videos go up usually within a few hours of the race finishing.
No account needed beyond a regular YouTube login. No wagering deposit. No age verification. No app to install if YouTube is already on the phone which it is on basically every Android device by default.
The quality is decent for phone viewing and you can cast it to a TV if the family wants to watch the replay together on a bigger screen. The limitation is that these are replays, not live broadcasts, so if watching the race as it happens is the priority then YouTube alone will not be enough but for catching up on races you missed during the work day it does the job fine.
One thing we noticed is that smaller YouTube creators who cover horse racing seasons are sometimes more useful than the official channel because they break down entries, discuss betting angles, and give context that the official replays do not include. Worth searching “Del Mar 2026” on YouTube and seeing what comes up beyond just the official page.
TwinSpires Gives You Live Streaming and It Is Free With Registration
So this is the app we would recommend for anyone who wants to watch Del Mar races live on their phone as they happen, not just replays after.
TwinSpires is operated by Churchill Downs Incorporated and it covers over 300 racetracks worldwide including Del Mar. The live streaming works on Android and iOS and the video quality has gotten noticeably better over the past couple of years compared to what it used to be.
What you get without paying anything:
- Live streaming of races as they run
- Race replays and video archive
- Entries and post positions for upcoming races
- Morning line odds
- Free handicapping information and expert picks
- Results with full charts
Registration is free and you can watch races without placing a single bet. The app does push you toward wagering because that is how Churchill Downs makes their money from it, but the streaming and information access works on its own even if you never put a dollar into the account.
Del Mar does not race every single day during the meet and first-post times change depending on the card, so entries usually come out only a few days before each race. Anyone wanting to plan ahead can check the Del Mar races schedule before the entries drop. TwinSpires sends notifications when entries drop for tracks you follow which saves you from having to check manually every morning.
The centerpiece of this summer’s meet is the $1 million Grade 1 Pacific Classic on August 22 with three other graded stakes on the same card. If there is one day worth watching live on TwinSpires this season, that card is the one.
FanDuel TV+ Covers Del Mar but You Need a Wagering Account
FanDuel TV+ is the streaming platform that replaced TVG, which was America’s first legal horse racing broadcast network. The app is free to download and available on Android, iOS, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV.
Here is where it gets a bit different from YouTube and TwinSpires though. To access the full live racing coverage you need a FanDuel account, and FanDuel accounts in most states require you to be in a legal wagering jurisdiction with a funded account. So while the app itself is free, the access path involves more steps and more commitment than TwinSpires.
If you already have a FanDuel account for sports betting or fantasy then the racing coverage comes included and you are already set. The Del Mar simulcast runs through FanDuel TV+ during the summer meet with HD quality and the interface is clean on mobile, probably the best looking of the three options if we are being honest about the design.
For someone who does not have a FanDuel account and is not interested in setting one up just to watch horse racing, TwinSpires is the simpler path because the registration barrier is lower and the streaming access is more straightforward.
Equibase Is Where You Check Entries and Results When the Other Apps Show Conflicting Information
This one is not for watching races. Equibase is for when you want to know what actually happened in a race and you want the official version, not someone’s interpretation of it.
Equibase is the official data source for all North American Thoroughbred racing. When TwinSpires shows one set of odds and some racing blog shows different ones, Equibase is the one that is correct because every track in North America feeds their official data through it.
What Equibase gives you on mobile:
- Today’s and tomorrow’s entries with post positions and morning line odds
- Late scratches and changes that other apps sometimes miss or update slowly
- Official result charts after each race with the complete order of finish, odds, and payoffs
- A written race description for each finish explaining what happened to every horse in the field
That last one is actually the most useful part and most people skip right past it. The written race description will say things like a horse was bumped at the start, or raced wide on the turn, or led into the stretch and weakened late. That kind of detail tells you more about what happened than just looking at the finishing positions does, because a horse that finished fourth after being bumped twice ran a completely different race than a horse that finished fourth with a clean trip.
Some of the advanced handicapping tools and video replays on Equibase require a paid subscription. But the entries, results, and race charts are available on the free version of the app on both Android and iOS, and for checking what is running at Del Mar today or what happened in yesterday’s card, the free version covers it.
Which One Works for What
Missed a race and want to catch up after work? YouTube channel covers that without any signup.
Want the races live on your phone as they run? TwinSpires after a free registration gets you there.
Already using FanDuel for sports? The racing coverage comes included through FanDuel TV+ and the mobile experience on it is honestly pretty clean.
Need entries, scratches, and official results with actual race descriptions? Equibase is the source every other app pulls their data from anyway.And to the visitor who sent us the original email about the Telegram link, we hope this sorts it out. Those Telegram streams get taken down because they are unofficial re-broadcasts that break the track’s distribution rights, which is why they stop working without warning. The four apps above are all legitimate and they are not going to vanish mid-race because of a copyright takedown.
The season wraps up September 7. Pacific Classic was August 22. If you have been following Del Mar and your usual way of watching broke, any of these four will carry you through the last days of the meet.
