After nearly half a century running the show at Del Mar, Joe Harper is easing out of the day-to-day grind at the seaside track. The 83-year-old chief executive announced yesterday that he will step away from his regular duties and retire at the end of this year. He will shift into a CEO Emeritus role and remain on the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club board, while the DMTC board has selected current Del Mar President Josh Rubinstein to become chief executive on Jan. 1, 2027.
In a press release, the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club said Harper will transition out of his day-to-day post, formally take on the CEO Emeritus title at the end of the year and continue as a director, with Rubinstein slated to step into the CEO job on Jan. 1, 2027. Board chairman David Batchelder praised Harper’s decades at the helm, calling his leadership invaluable to Thoroughbred racing in California and the U.S.
From general manager to CEO emeritus
Harper first arrived at Del Mar as general manager in 1977 and was promoted to CEO in 1990, roles in which he helped reshape both the track’s physical footprint and its racing calendar, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. He oversaw the demolition and reconstruction of Del Mar’s grandstand in the early 1990s and helped launch the Grade I Pacific Classic in 1991, moves the paper credits with boosting Del Mar’s national profile. Harper told the Union-Tribune that “this job has been paradise because of the people who work here.”
Rubinstein’s turn at the helm
Rubinstein, who was named Del Mar president in 2018, will continue in that role through the end of the year before taking on the CEO title, as local outlets report. 10News notes that he has overseen record-setting meets and led Del Mar’s recent push on equine safety and welfare. A long-form profile from Thoroughbred Daily News traces Rubinstein’s rise through the track’s marketing and operations departments, highlighting how the promotion keeps the leadership baton firmly in-house.
Legacy and local impact
Harper’s tenure featured some of Del Mar’s biggest modern milestones. The track hosted the Breeders’ Cup World Championships beginning in 2017 and later welcomed the event back, and the Pacific Classic, launched under his watch in 1991, evolved into one of the summer’s signature races, the club said. The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club credits Harper with blending world-class racing with innovative marketing and a hospitality-driven experience that turned the meet into a national draw. Those changes helped solidify Del Mar as a major economic and cultural anchor for San Diego’s North County coast.
For Del Mar regulars and the wider California racing scene, the move is being framed as a careful handoff rather than a shake-up. Harper will stay involved as an advisor and board member through the transition, and Rubinstein’s promotion signals a continuity-first approach at one of the state’s most visible racetracks. So expect the same summer spectacle at the shore-side oval, even as the club quietly sets up its next era under new day-to-day leadership.
