Santa Anita Park

Information about Santa Anita Park

Horse Race Track
Santa Anita Park

Location	Arcadia, California, United States
Owned by	Magna Entertainment Corp.
Year opened	1934
Race type	Thoroughbred - Flat racing
Website	www.santaanita.com
Principal Races - Santa Anita
Santa Anita Handicap (G1)
Santa Anita Derby (G1)
Sunshine Millions Day
Principal Races - Oak Tree
Yellow Ribbon Stakes (G1)
Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship Stakes (G1)
Ancient Title Breeders' Cup Handicap (G1)

Santa Anita Park is a thoroughbred racetrack in Arcadia, California, USA. It is known for offering some of the prominent racing events 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.

History

Santa Anita Park was opened on December 25, 1934 and is the oldest 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 further funds. These two groups combined and 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.

Art deco entrance to Santa Anita's grandstands.

Under the leadership of Doc Strub, Santa Anita initiated many innovations that are standard in today's thoroughbred 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 Racetrack 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, and is scheduled to host it again in 2008.

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.

Lily Okuru, a Japanese-American woman held at Santa Anita Park, poses with the statue of Seabiscuit, 1942

Seabiscuit statue was hand tooled by Frank Buchler a German imigrant of Washington Ornamental Iron Company Los Angeles CA. The Santa Anita meeting still often draws massive crowds. 56,810 people were at the park for Santa Anita Derby Day 2007. Other 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.

At Santa Anita Park's European-style paddock there are statues of jockeys George Woolf, Johnny Longden, Bill Shoemaker and Laffit Pincay, Jr. plus a memorial bust of announcer Joe Hernandez and one of trainer Charlie Whittingham with his dog, Toby. There is also a lifesize bronze of Seabiscuit in the walking ring at Seabiscuit Court.

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..."

Physical attributes

The Santa Anita track is set against the backdrop of the San Gabriel Mountains.

Santa Anita has a one-mile (1,609 m) synthetic "cushion" 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 will race with a new synthetic surface called 'cushion track'. The cushion track is a mixture of silica sand, synthetic fibers, elastic fiber, granulated rubber and a wax coating. The new cushion track will open for training on or about Sept 4, 2007 and will host its first live race on Sept 26, 2007.

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]

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.

Grade I stakes:

Grade II stakes:

Grade III stakes:

Miscellaneous information

Superstition: In Santa Anita Park's horse stalls, there is no 13th stall, since 13 is considered unlucky. There is a 12 and a 12a, then a 14.

External links

References

Santa Anita Park Official Website
Oak Tree Racing Association Official Website
Bedford, Julian (1989). The World Atlas of Horse Racing.

Arcadia, California
Location of Arcadia within Los Angeles County, California.
Coordinates:
Country United States
State California
County Los Angeles
Government
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Motto
"In God We Trust" (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum" ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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Magna Entertainment Corporation is a gaming and horse racing company in North America with several holdings in Europe and Australia, and is North America's largest thoroughbred racing company, based on revenue and holdings.
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Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known as a race horse. While carefully bred racehorses had existed throughout Europe for centuries prior to this time, the breed as it is known today developed during the 17th century in England when English mares began to be bred to imported
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Flat racing is a term commonly used to denote a form of horse racing which is run over a level track at a predetermined distance. It differs from steeplechase racing over hurdles.
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Location Santa Anita Park
Arcadia, California, United States
Inaugurated: 1935
Race type Thoroughbred - Flat racing
Website: Santa Anita Park
Race information
Distance 1¼ miles (10 furlongs)
Track Dirt, left-handed

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Location Santa Anita Park
Arcadia, California, USA
Inaugurated: 1935
Race type Thoroughbred - Flat racing
Website: Santa Anita Park
Race information
Distance 1⅛ miles (9 furlongs)
Track Dirt, Right-handed

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The Sunshine Millions is a series of American races for thoroughbred horses held in January at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California or at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida.
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The Yellow Ribbon Stakes is a Grade I race for thoroughbred fillies and mares aged three-years-old and upwards. It is raced during the Oak Tree Racing Association meeting at Santa Anita Park in late September / early October.
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Location Santa Anita Park
Arcadia, California
Inaugurated: 1969
Race type Thoroughbred - Flat racing
Website: www.santaanita.com
Race information
Distance 1¼ miles (10 furlongs)
Track Grass, left-handed
Qualification
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Location Santa Anita Park
Arcadia, California, USA
Inaugurated: 1985
Race type Thoroughbred - Flat racing
Website: Oak Tree at Santa Anita
Race information
Distance 6 furlongs
Track Dirt, left-handed
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An editor has expressed concern that this article or section is .
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Motto
"In God We Trust" (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum" ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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Elias Jackson "Lucky" Baldwin (April 3, 1828 - March 1, 1909) was a prominent California businessman and investor of the second half of the 19th century. Having generated most of his wealth through both savvy and lucky mining investments (for which he received his nickname),
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Parimutuel betting (from the French language: pari mutuel, mutual betting) is a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and a house take are removed, and payoff odds are calculated by sharing the pool among all placed bets.
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Charles Henry ('Doc') Strub (1884 - March 28, 1958) was an American dentist and entrepreneur who built and owned Santa Anita Park racetrack in Arcadia, California and was president and partner of the San Francisco Seals baseball club of the Pacific Coast League.
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Seabiscuit (May 23, 1933—May 17, 1947) was a champion thoroughbred race horse in the United States. From an inauspicious start, Seabiscuit became an unlikely champion and a symbol of hope to many US citizens during the Great Depression.
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Allied powers:
Soviet Union
United States
United Kingdom
China
France
...et al. Axis powers:
Germany
Japan
Italy
...et al.
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Internment is the imprisonment or confinement^[1] of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary (1989) gives the meaning as "The action of ‘interning’; confinement within the limits of a country or place".
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Silky Sullivan (February 28, 1955 – November 18, 1977) was an American thoroughbred race horse, considered by many to be the come-from-behind runner of come-from-behind runners, the closer of closers.
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Location Del Mar, California
Owned by Del Mar Thoroughbred Club
Date opened July 3, 1937
Race type Thoroughbred
Website www.dmtc.com
Principal Races
Pacific Classic (G1)
Eddie Read Handicap (G1)
Del Mar Oaks (G1)
John C.
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The Oak Tree Racing Association is an American not-for-profit corporation that exists to conduct live thoroughbred horse racing in Southern California.

History

In 1968, the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club the operators of Del Mar Racetrack in Del Mar, California decided to
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Location Changes yearly
Inaugurated: 1984
Race type Thoroughbred
Website: Official Breeders' Cup website
Race information
Distance See individual races
Track Turf, Dirt, All Weather
Qualification See individual races
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Event Gold Silver Bronze
Individual dressage Reiner Klimke and Ahlerich
West Germany (FRG) Anne Jensen-Tornblad and Marzog
Denmark (DEN)
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Santa Anita Park

Information about Santa Anita Park

History

Physical attributes

Racing

Miscellaneous information

External links

References

History