If your calendar still has "Fab Friday at the track" penciled in for August, it is time to erase it. The Emerald Downs meet you remember from last year, with a Friday night card, a Saturday card, and a Sunday card every weekend, is not the meet running through Labor Day this year. The Friday lights went out for the season on July 31. Everything that made August in Auburn feel like Auburn is still here, but the pieces have shifted around the calendar in ways worth understanding before you plan the next four weekends.
This post is the practical read on what changed, what did not, and how to put a good August Saturday or Sunday together without driving anywhere.
The Emerald Downs Meet Was Rearranged Mid-Season
The 2026 racing calendar opened on schedule. The season is 51 days and starts on Saturday, May 2nd through the final day on Labor Day, Monday, September 7. The trouble showed up in the field sizes. The track asked the State racing commission to cancel the 4 Friday nights in August due to the shortage of horses. They also asked and received permission to race as many as 12 races on the remaining Saturdays and Sundays.
For anyone who has watched the track over the last five years, the underlying numbers explain the decision better than any press release could. Through 33 of the scheduled 51 days:
| Meet metric | 2025 full season | 2026 through 33 days |
|---|---|---|
| Total handle | $43,555,230 | $39,798,881 |
| Starters per day | 61.2 | 50.6 |
| Starters per race | 7.4 | 6.4 |
| 3, 4, and 5-horse fields | 8% of races | 31% of races |
Those are Eli Sports Network's tallies published on July 31 showing that in 2025 the total number of 3, 4 and 5 horse fields made up 8% of all the 2025 races. Right now in 2026 the 3, 4 and 5 fields are 31% of the total races. That is the story behind the schedule change: not fewer fans, fewer horses in each field, which means shorter payouts, which means bettors lose interest and handle sags. Cancelling four Fridays and stretching the Saturday cards to as many as twelve races is the track's attempt to concentrate the remaining horse population into fuller, more competitive fields.
There is a small silver lining for anyone who liked the Friday promotions. Track president Phil Ziegler announced that all those promotions will be added to all the final Saturdays of 2026. So beginning next week wear your Fab Friday shirt on Saturday and you get free admission, they will be adding the horseshoe toss to Saturdays and with already other Saturday promotions there will be food and drink specials. The Fab Friday shirt is now a Saturday admission ticket.
August 16 Is the Day That Matters
If you go to the track once this summer, make it Sunday, August 16. Championship Sunday featuring the 91st Longacres Mile and five other stakes is Sunday, Aug. 16. The Mile is the anchor, and the purse structure tells you why the day draws the crowd it does. The Longacres Mile will offer a $125,000 purse. All other thoroughbred stakes offer a $50,000 purse. The other five Stakes to be run on Championship Sunday will be the Distaff, Muckleshoot Derby, Oaks, Lassies and Lads.
For context on how big the day is relative to a normal race day, in 2025, Championship Sunday featured an all-time Emerald Downs' record handle of $3,305,806. The single-day record is roughly two and a half times the current average daily handle of the meet. It is the one card where field sizes, purses, and crowd all line up.
The track sits at 2300 Ron Crockett Dr. Auburn, WA 98001, and it is worth remembering the small logistical details that shape the day: Free public parking is available north of the racetrack. There is also preferred and premium parking to the west along Ron Crockett Drive, though it costs $10-$20. On a stakes day, arriving with the free parking plan in mind saves time you would otherwise spend circling.
This is also the 30th year of racing at the Auburn oval. Emerald Downs, the beloved horse racing venue in Auburn, Washington, is gearing up for its 30th season of racing. The 2026 meet will run from May 2nd through Labor Day, featuring 51 days of live thoroughbred and quarter horse action, including the prestigious 91st running of the Longacres Mile. The anniversary marker matters because the track's history in this valley predates Emerald Downs itself. Emerald Downs first opened its doors to race fans on June 20, 1996. It replaced Longacres Racetrack, which closed in September 1992 after sixty seasons of racing. Championship Sunday is the day the local end of that ninety-plus-year thread is most visible.
Sunday Mornings Belong to Les Gove
The other reliable Auburn Sunday runs on a completely different clock. Opening Day of the Auburn Farmers Market! Located in the Les Gove Park. 1140 Auburn Way S. Auburn, Wa 98002, and the market runs from 10am to 3pm on Sundays from June 7th 2026 to Sep 20th 2026. That gives residents seven more Sundays after the first weekend of August before the season closes.
Two facts about this market are worth holding onto if you have only stopped by once or twice. First, it is coordinated by the City of Auburn and has grown into something larger than the average South King County market. Open every Sunday, June - September, the Auburn Farmers Market boasts more than 40 vendors offering a variety of fresh locally grown farm-based foods, hand-crafted items, and concession stand that are restaurant-based but feature a home-cooked taste. The market is coordinated by the City of Auburn. Second, it feeds back into the community it draws from. Each year the Auburn Farmers Market donates nearly 5,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to the Auburn Food Bank.
The Les Gove footprint is broad enough that the market spreads well past the produce stalls. The Auburn Farmers Market at Les Gove Park will be bustling with fresh produce, flowers, live crab, eggs, meat, cheese, honey, crafts and more. You'll see our vendors spread throughout Les Gove Park from the Crow on Auburn Way S. to the playground. If you are bringing kids, planning around the playground and sprayground end of the park is the move; if you are shopping, the Auburn Way S. entrance puts you closest to the produce vendors.
Wednesday Nights, One Last Time This Season
The city's summer music series at Les Gove is easy to overlook because it does not travel through downtown, but it is genuinely a resident-only kind of evening. The perfect summer entertainment series the whole family will enjoy! Pack up a picnic blanket and dinner and enjoy the various performances. The series will be held at the parks shelter beside the Discovery Playground. Wednesdays at 6:30 PM from July 15 to August 12.
By the time you read this, most of the series has already played. The remaining dates from the full 2026 lineup:
- Wednesday, July 15 — The Fabulous Murphtones (Rock 'n Roll hits)
- Wednesday, July 22 — America's 1st Corps Rock Band
- Wednesday, July 29 — Mariachi Mexico
- Wednesday, August 5 — The Elevators (Classic Rock)
- Wednesday, August 12 — Darren Motamedy (Contemporary Jazz)
The last two Wednesdays of the run are the reason to bring this up. The Wednesday, August 5 - The Elevators (Classic Rock) Wednesday, August 12 - Darren Motamedy (Contemporary Jazz) closers land at the same shelter beside the Discovery Playground. If you have never made the walk down to that end of Les Gove, the sprayground and playground stay busy in the golden hour, and the shelter faces west enough to catch it.
Putting a Full Auburn Weekend Together
The practical takeaway is that the shape of an Auburn August weekend has narrowed from three days to two, and the two days have gotten denser. Friday nights at the track are gone; Saturday cards are longer, with the old Friday promotions layered on top; Sunday mornings run at Les Gove and Sunday afternoons run at Emerald Downs. If you are pointing an out-of-town guest at one weekend, the second full weekend of the month is the answer: farmers market at 10 a.m. on Sunday, August 16, then the Longacres Mile card that afternoon four miles west at Ron Crockett Drive. Nothing else on the local calendar this summer stacks that neatly.
For long-time residents, the deeper point is that Auburn's summer institutions are more fragile than they look. A ninety-year racing tradition is running with a horse-population problem serious enough to force a mid-season schedule change, and the market at Les Gove is one of the few remaining places in South King County where forty-plus vendors set up in a public park every week. Neither one runs on autopilot, and both are worth showing up for while the season is still open.
When You Are Ready to Talk About the Home Itself
If you have been in Auburn long enough to know why the Longacres Mile matters and where to park at Les Gove, you already know more about this market than most agents who pitch it. When it is time to think about what the house is worth, what the next one might cost, or how a move fits with the rest of your year, the team at Joe Perkins can walk through it with you. Start with a Free Home Valuation at perkinsnwre.com/home-valuation, or read more about the Auburn area on our neighborhoods page.
