During Santa Anita’s glory days, the Chandelier Room in the Turf Club was the place to go to rub elbows with Hollywood royalty.
For those who prefer to hang with prominent horse racing people – jockeys, trainers, owners – the place to go at Santa Anita has always been and still is Clockers’ Corner.

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Rosie Mornings at Clockers' Corner
by Larry Stewart
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Located on the west end of the track, it’s where everyone congregates during morning workouts. You can sit outside, have a great breakfast and a cup of coffee, soak up the morning sun, enjoy a beautiful view of the San Gabriel Mountains and watch the horses train. And maybe get a tip or two.

“It’s the best kept secret in Southern California,” said horse owner and bloodstock agent Charles Lambert, a Clockers’ Corner regular.
Said jockey agent Ronnie Ebanks: “There’s no place else like this at any other racetrack except maybe Arlington Park. But that’s both inside and outside. Here, everything is outside.”
Breeders’ Cup publicist Jim Gluckson: “It’s true. There is no place in the country like Clockers’ Corner.”
According to trainer Bob Baffert, “It’s just a great atmosphere; the perfect place to watch the horses train and enjoy a good breakfast.”
Added retired jockey Gary Stevens, another Clockers’ Corner regular: “Sure, there’s the spectacular view, but also a lot of business gets done here. This is a great meeting place.”
Retired jockey Laffit Pincay, who doesn’t visit Clockers’ Corner as much as he used to but was there recently, said: “I always enjoyed talking to the fans when I came here.”
Clockers’ Corner is open to the public seven days a week, 4:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. And on weekends, there is table service, plus an all-you-can-eat buffet for $9.50 ($5.50 for kids).
In addition to a complete breakfast, a great view  and a chance to hobnob with racing’s elite, another plus about visiting Clockers' Corner is Rosie Ybarra (pictured below) a lovable 56-year-old character who has become something of a legend around Santa Anita. She calls herself a food server, but she is much more than that. She is the diva of Clockers' Corner.
Ybarra, who grew up in East Los Angeles and has two children and five grandchildren, has worked at the track for nearly 30 years and has been stationed at the Clockers’ Corner window for 17 of those years.
“She runs the show for us," said Randy Fowler, Rosie’s boss. "We just help out where we can.”
When Rosie was named employee of the meet last April, Frank Stronach, chairman of Magna Entertainment, Santa Anita’s parent company, presented the award in the winners’ circle. Later, when Rosie found Stronach in the FrontRunner restaurant, she approached him with tears in her eyes and said, “You made this the best day of my life.”
“It was a good day for me too,” Stronach replied. He later told the people at his table, “She’s something else. I like her.”
So do a lot of racetrack people.
A few years ago, Rosie, who also sells the Racing Form at Clockers’ Corner, lost the $370 she had collected that morning, and it was going to come out of her pocket.
The news of Rosie’s misfortune spread quickly, and soon there was a line at her window. Everyone wanted to help. But Baffert, the first one in line, solved the problem by plopping down four hundred dollar bills.
“Don’t worry about paying back the money,” he said. “Just worry about taking care of all of us.”