Santa Anita Park
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Santa Anita Park is a thoroughbred racetrack in Arcadia, California. It is known for offering some of the best racing in the United States during the autumn and in winter. Racing at Santa Anita began in 1934. Since that time the track has grown to be considered the best in wintertime horse racing in the United States and around the world. The track is home of numerous prestigious races including both the Santa Anita Derby and the Santa Anita Handicap.
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[edit] History
Santa Anita Park was opened on December 25, 1934 and is the oldest and most prestigious racetrack in Southern California. Gold prospector Lucky Baldwin initially founded a racetrack on the present site in Arcadia outside of Los Angeles in the 1800's but it later closed. In 1933, California legalized parimutuel wagering and several investor groups worked furiously to open racetracks. In the San Francisco Area, a group headed by and Dr. Charles H ("Doc") Strub was having trouble locating a site. In the Los Angeles area a group headed by movie producer Hal Roach was in need of futher funds. These two groups combined and the the newly-formed Los Angeles Turf Club reopened the track on Christmas Day in 1934. In February of 1935, the first Santa Anita Handicap was run. The race's $100,000 purse, the largest of any race ever up until that time, produced its nickname the Big 'Cap.
Under the leadership of Doc Strub, Santa Anita intiated many innovations that are standard in today's throughbred horse racing such as the use of starting gates and photo finishes for every race. It is interesting to note that the implementation of photo finishes at Santa Anita actually recorded an increase in dead heats!
In 1940, Seabiscuit won the Santa Anita Handicap in his last start. Two years later, in 1942, racing at Santa Anita was suspended due to the Second World War. From 1942 to 1945, Santa Anita was used as an internment camp for Japanese-Americans. After the track reopened in 1945, the track went through the postwar years with prosperity. A downhill turf course that added a distinctly European flair to racing at Santa Anita was added in 1953.
A record 61,123 people showed up for the 1958 Santa Anita Derby, making the attendance that day a record crowd. They'd come to watch Silky Sullivan come from 28 lengths off the pace and win—going away.
The 1960s brought about a major renovation of Santa Anita Park, including a much-expanded grandstand as well as major seating additions. In 1968, Del Mar Thoroughbred Club relinquished its dates to an autumn meeting. A group of horsemen including Clement Hirsch intervened and established the not-for-profit Oak Tree Racing Association. Oak Tree had no facilities of its own and rented Santa Anita Park for an autumn meeting in 1969.
Oak Tree has since become the operator of the autumn meet at Santa Anita Park. This meet runs from the end of September to the middle of November. Many key stakes races are held during the Oak Tree Meeting, including many preps to the Breeders' Cup races. Oak Tree has been given the privilege of holding the Breeders' Cup itself on three occasions, in 1986, 1993, and 2003.
Prosperity continued at Santa Anita throughout the 1970s and the 1980s. In 1984, Santa Anita was the site of equestrian events at the 1984 Olympics. The following year, the track set an attendance record of 85,527 people on Santa Anita Handicap Day.
Santa Anita still draws massive crowds during the late December to mid April meeting. For example, 34,000 people attended Santa Anita Park on December 26, 2005. Other competing tracks such as Calder and Fair Grounds struggle to get 10,000 or less. This level of attendance and the betting that coincides with it guarantees the prosperity of Santa Anita.
In 1997, Santa Anita Park was purchased by Meditrust. Meditrust in turn sold the track to Magna Entertainment Corp. Magna still owns Santa Anita Park. In 2006, Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita cohosted the Sunshine Millions, [1] a day of competition in stakes between horses bred in Florida and those bred in California. Gulfstream and Santa Anita are generally recognized as the top winter tracks, especially with the absence of Fair Grounds Race Course due to Hurricane Katrina.
Due to its proximity to Los Angeles, Santa Anita has traditionally been associated with the film and television industries. The Marx Brothers classic A Day at the Races was filmed there, and many stars, including Bing Crosby, Spencer Tracy, Errol Flynn, Alex Trebek, and MGM mogul, Louis B. Mayer, have owned horses that raced there.
The track boasts statues of both Seabiscuit and George Woolf, hailed as the best jockey of his generation, who owned the nearby Derby Arcadia restaurant. Since 1950, Santa Anita Park has annually presented the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award to a rider who demonstrates high standards of personal and professional conduct, on and off the racetrack.
South African native Trevor Denman has served as the track announcer at Santa Anita since 1983. Denman is considered to be one of the best announcers in the country alongside Tom Durkin, the announcer at Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course. Denman is noted for his calls beginning with "And awaaay they go..."
[edit] Physical attributes
Santa Anita has a one-mile (1,609 m) dirt main track which rings a turf course measuring 9/10 of a mile, or 7 furlongs plus 132 feet (1,448 m). In addition, it has an unusual hillside turf course which crosses the dirt and is used mainly to run turf races at a distance of "about" 6½ furlongs (exact distance 64½ feet less than same). This type of track is one of the few of its kind in America.
Santa Anita occupies 320 acres. It has a 1,100-foot-long grandstand, which is a historic landmark that seats 26,000 guests. The grandstand is done in an Art Deco style and is the original facade from the 1930s. [2]
The track infield area, which resembles a park with picnic tables and large trees, can accommodate 50,000 or more guests. The Park also contains 61 barns, which house more than 2,000 horses, and an equine hospital. [3]
[edit] Racing
The racing at Santa Anita Park is a very high standard. Purses are among the highest in the nation and the track draws good horses albeit small numbers of them. Santa Anita is considered to hold the best racing in the country during the Winter-Spring Meeting and racing of a similar high standard during the Oak Tree Meeting.
During these two meets the track hosts thirteen Grade I stakes. They are the Ancient Title Breeders' Cup Handicap, the Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship Stakes, the Frank E. Kilroe Mile Handicap, the La Brea Stakes, the Las Virgenes Stakes, the Malibu Stakes, the Santa Anita Derby, the Santa Anita Handicap, the Santa Anita Oaks, the Santa Margarita Invitational Handicap, the Santa Maria Handicap, the Santa Monica Handicap and the Yellow Ribbon Stakes.
The Grade Two races held during these meets are the Arcadia Handicap, the Buena Vista Handicap, the El Encino Stakes, the Goodwood Breeders' Cup Handicap, the La Canada Stakes, the Lady's Secret Breeders' Cup Handicap, the Las Palmas Handicap, the Norfolk Stakes, the Oak Leaf Stakes, the Oak Tree Breeders' Cup Mile Stakes, the Oak Tree Derby, the Palos Verdes Handicap, the Portero Grande Breeders' Cup Handicap, the San Antonio Handicap, the San Carlos Handicap, the San Felipe Stakes, the San Fernando Breeders' Cup Stakes, the San Gabriel Handicap, the San Gorgonio Handicap, the San Juan Capistrano Invitational Handicap, the San Luis Obispo Handicap, the San Luis Rey Handicap, the San Marcos Stakes, the San Pasqual Handicap, the San Rafael Stakes,the San Vicente Stakes, the Santa Ana Handicap, the Santa Barbara Handicap, the Santa Catalina Stakes, the Santa Ynez Stakes and the Strub Stakes.
The track is also the host of twelve Grade Three races. They are the Baldwin Stakes, the Carleton F. Burke Handicap, the El Conejo Handicap, the Las Cienegas Handicap, the Las Flores Handicap, the Monrovia Handicap, the Morvich Handicap, the Providencia Stakes, the San Bernardino Handicap, the San Simeon Handicap, the Santa Ysabel Stakes and the Senator Ken Maddy Handicap.
[edit] Miscellaneous information
- Japanese internment: The Santa Anita Racetrack was one of the locations used as a temporary detention camp in 1942 for Japanese and Japanese-Americans before they were relocated to more permanent facilities such as the Manzanar War Relocation Center.
[edit] External links
- Santa Anita Park Official Website
- National Trust for Historic Preservation: Santa Anita Racetrack
- Uncle Clyde's Horse Racing Guide
[edit] References
- Santa Anita Park Official Website
- Oak Tree Racing Association Official Website
- Bedford, Julian (1989). The World Atlas of Horse Racing.
