ADVANIRancho Santa Fe.Horse country, by covenant.
Groves planted for a railroad that never needed them, a village drawn by Lilian Rice, sixty miles of private bridle trails, and a racetrack Bing Crosby built down the road. Nobody stumbles into Rancho Santa Fe. They arrive.
The Rancho Santa Fe race card.
Every day worth dressing for: Del Mar racing, the National, the summer jumper series, the dressage CDIs and the Village’s own nights. Past dates fall off the card on their own.
Loading the card…
Dates from HITS Del Mar, Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and event organizers. Always confirm with the organizer before you go.
Inside the gates, and just outside them.
The Covenant, the barns, the clubs and the communities that share the 92067 address. Tap a pin.
The Village & The Inn
Lilian Rice designed the Village in the 1920s for the Santa Fe Land Improvement Company: low Spanish-style buildings along Paseo Delicias, built to make a railroad land sale feel like a town that had always been there. It still works.
- The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe began as La Morada, the land company’s guest house
- Bing’s Bar at The Inn is named for its most famous regular
- Coffee, a market, the library and the Association offices within a few blocks
Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club
Max Behr laid out the course in 1927. Ten years later Bing Crosby, who lived a few minutes away, held the first Crosby Clambake here: pros and his Hollywood friends, a $3,000 purse he paid himself, and a clambake after.
- The Clambake was played here from 1937 to 1942 before moving to Pebble Beach
- It became today’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
- Membership runs through the Rancho Santa Fe Association
The Association trails
The Rancho Santa Fe Association maintains roughly 60 miles of riding and walking trails that thread between the estates, plus the 68-acre Arroyo Preserve. They are private: Association members and their accompanied guests.
- Horses have the right of way
- Dogs on leash; no riding with dogs
- Whether a home has easy trail access is worth real money here, and I check it
Rancho Riding Club
The community barn: 11 acres with four arenas, 60 box stalls and 50 outside corrals, a round pen and a free-flow exerciser. Boarding, training, private lessons and summer camps.
- The easy answer to “we want a horse, not a barn”
- Tack rooms, turnouts, hot-water wash racks and a clubhouse
Rancho Cielo Equestrian
Eleven level acres on the east side with three jumping arenas, a regulation dressage arena and a western schooling arena, plus barns, covered corrals, lunge rings and direct trail access.
- Built for riders who show
- One of the newer full-service facilities in the area
Del Mar Horsepark
Sixty-five acres along the river with a grass Grand Prix field, a large indoor arena, dressage rings and stabling for 500 horses. Home of the Del Mar National Horse Show and the HITS Del Mar series that fills the summer.
- The National is an official USEF Heritage Competition, and admission is free
- About ten minutes from the Village
Del Mar Racetrack
Bing Crosby and his partners opened the track in 1937, where the turf meets the surf. Racing runs in summer and again in the fall for the Bing Crosby Season. Rancho Santa Fe has been its back yard from the start.
- Opening Day hats are a dress code, not a suggestion
- The Del Mar racing guide →
Fairbanks Ranch
Douglas Fairbanks Sr. bought this river-valley land in the 1920s. Today it’s a guard-gated estate community with its own association, its own equestrian center and its own rules, separate from the Covenant.
- Same ZIP, different governance: read the CC&Rs, not the Covenant
The Bridges
A gated golf community east of the Covenant, built around a private club. Newer estates, a different association, and a different set of design rules.
- Club membership is separate from home ownership; ask before you assume
The Crosby
A 722-acre gated community named for Bing, built around its own private golf club, a few minutes from the Village.
- Newer construction than most of the Covenant
Lake Hodges & the river
The San Dieguito River runs from Lake Hodges past Fairbanks Ranch and the Horsepark to the lagoon at Del Mar. The river park trails along it are public, which matters if you ride and you’re outside the Covenant.
- Public trails along the San Dieguito River Park
Where the horses actually live.
Plenty of buyers want the horse life without running a barn. Here’s where that happens.
A railroad’s mistake, made beautiful on purpose.
The railway buys the rancho
The Santa Fe Railway buys the old Rancho San Dieguito lands, sight mostly unseen.
Three and a half million trees
Between 1906 and 1914 the railway plants about 3.5 million eucalyptus on 3,000 acres for railroad ties. The wood splits. The trees stay, and they are why the place looks the way it does.
The land company files its map
The Santa Fe Land Improvement Company subdivides the ranch into gentleman’s ranches and groves, and hires a young architect named Lilian Rice.
The golf club opens
Max Behr’s course opens. It still plays largely as he drew it.
The Covenant
The Rancho Santa Fe Covenant is recorded, creating the Association and its Art Jury. Nearly a century later, it still reviews what gets built and how it looks.
Bing moves in
Bing Crosby buys a home in Rancho Santa Fe and plays the golf course almost daily.
Turf, surf and a clambake
Crosby and partners open Del Mar. The same year, the first Crosby Clambake is played at the Golf Club; Sam Snead wins.
Seabiscuit at Del Mar
Seabiscuit beats Ligaroti, a horse from Crosby’s own stable, in a match race broadcast coast to coast on radio.
Rancho Cielo opens
A new full-service equestrian center on the east side, built for riders who show.
The 77th National
The Del Mar National Horse Show runs for the 77th time, an official USEF Heritage Competition with free admission.
Sources: Rancho Santa Fe Historical Society, SCGA, The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe, HITS.
The ZIP code is bigger than the Covenant.
Plenty of homes carry a Rancho Santa Fe address. Fewer sit inside the Covenant. Fairbanks Ranch, The Bridges, The Crosby and others share the name and the 92067 or 92091 ZIP, but each has its own association, its own gates and its own rules. That changes what you can build, where you can ride and what you pay to belong.
None of that shows up on a portal listing. It shows up in the documents, and it’s the first thing I pull.
What I check for my buyers
- Inside or outside the Covenant, and which association actually governs the lot.
- Association membership and trail access, and how close the nearest trail connection really is.
- Art Jury history: whether past additions and remodels were approved.
- Horse-keeping: whether the lot and its rules allow horses, and how many.
- Recorded trail easements crossing the property.
- Club memberships that are tied to, or separate from, the home.
Let’s talk acreage, barns and the Covenant.
Whether you want a horse property, an estate inside the Covenant, or something gated and newer just outside it, tell me what you’re after.
San Diego real estate, explained. Once a month.
New housing laws, local rules and big developments, and what they mean for your home. Written by Prem Advani, broker and attorney. Unsubscribe anytime.