Best Santa Anita crowd since 1994

With Santa Anita Park‘s traditional day-after-Christmas opening day falling on a Monday that was a holiday for most people and picture-perfect weather, the race track enjoyed its biggest season opener in nearly 17 years.

The 44,579 in attendance was the first opening day crowd over 40,000 since 2002, and the biggest since the 46,904 crowd of 1994, according to track officials. Monday’s attendance was up 30% over the previous year’s on-track attendance of 34,268. The on-track handle of $4,246,751 was an increase of 10% over 2010. The overall handle, $12,866,300, was up 9%.

Also likely contributing to the bigger crowds was a beefed up marketing push throughout the Los Angeles region aimed at attracting younger fans and Latinos.

Santa Anita will be dark on Tuesday and Wednesday before commencing five successive days of racing on Thursday.

— By Scott Hettrick