The sun finally came out in time for the opening day of the Santa Anita Park 74th annual horse racing winter/spring meet, which drew 34,268 fans Sunday (Dec. 26). Despite 14 ¼ inches of rain over the previous nine days, including another 3/4-inch overnight,the new dirt track held up very well, although it led to some unprecedented fast race times. But with so many days of rain until hours before the opening and the chilly temperatures most likely contributed to the crowds being smaller than last year. “I’ll have to admit, I was a little nervous last night,” said Santa Anita President George Haines. “To be able to open on schedule and put on a world-class show as we did today, is incredibly gratifying. We faced some very significant challenges and we proved that this new track can handle just about anything. The racing was terrific and although we had some fast times, we had no problems during any of the races, and that is more important to us than anything else.”
Santa Anita handled $3,851,594 on-track and total mutuel handle reached $11,707,276.