On Christmas day 1934, tens of thousands of people escaped traditional holiday celebrations to welcome racing back to southern California, after a 25-year absence.
The inaugural day of racing at Santa Anita Park saw a crowd reported by the Los Angeles Times to be 39,000…or 50,000. Both figures are cited in a single article. Located in Arcadia, the track was from the start a draw for the rich and famous: on that first day, Clark Gable, Will Rogers, and Al Jolson all attended.
Papers on both coasts reported long lines for betting, with the Los Angeles Times saying, perhaps hyperbolically, that when betting windows closed at the start of each race, more people were waiting in line than had actually gotten a bet down. The New York Times said it was “almost impossible” to place a $2 or $5 wager.
In an era of declining attention to horse racing – the New York Times declined to cover this opening day – the first day of racing at Santa Anita represents a holiday of sorts.
“Traditionally, opening day is an event,” said Santa Anita president George Haines. “It’s what you do the day after Christmas: you go to Santa Anita. People want to be here; they’re proud of their string of opening days. One guy here Monday said it was 50th.”
Sally Cruickshank agreed. She lives in the area and became a racing fan about a decade ago, when her riding horse died and she was looking for an equine activity to fill the void. Asked why she attended opening day, she said, “We always go. It’s a very exciting day, and I’d been reading my Racing Form since the day the Santa Anita entries became available.”
And while she found the track “impossibly crowded” – “You’d have thought Zenyatta was here,” she said, referring to the California-based mare who became the first female horse to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic and 2010 Horse of the Year – she didn’t really mind. “It’s wonderful for the Park,” she said.
While always regarded as a marquee track in U.S. racing, Santa Anita is enjoying a particularly high profile these days. For the third time in five years, the track will host the Breeders’ Cup this fall. And the track’s singular landscape will brought to millions through the HBO series Luck, which is set at Santa Anita and which débuted on December 11.
Haines noted that the series is a “key part” of Santa Anita’s marketing strategy this winter and expressed pleasure in partnering with HBO. “You can’t do better than Michael Mann, David Milch, and Dustin Hoffman,” he said, referring to the series’ director, producer, and star. The track was prominently featured in the pilot and, said Haines, “Santa Anita couldn’t have looked more beautiful.”
Even executives at rival tracks have to praise it. Charles Hayward is president of the New York Racing Association, and two of the tracks he oversees, Saratoga and Belmont, are often lauded for their physical beauty. Even he concedes that Santa Anita is something special. "I love being on the backstretch at Saratoga in the morning,” he said, then admitted, “but there's nothing like being at Santa Anita during morning workouts."
On New Year’s Eve, Santa Anita will host the country's last Grade 1 race of the year, the La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. While most of the year’s important racing is long over, the La Brea could play a role in deciding the Eclipse for female sprinter, should multiple graded stakes winner Turbulent Descent win her third Grade 1 of the year.
And when the horses break from the gate in the La Brea, Sally Cruickshank will be there, undeterred by the unpleasantness of the opening day crowd. “We generally go about twice a week,” she said. “Of course we’re going back on Saturday.”
