Santa Anita closes big

Santa Anita Park ended its 2012 winter/spring season April 22 with more than 580,000 admissions. It was one of a clean sweep of category gains for the 75th season, along with on-track attendance, handle and overall pari-mutuel handle.

Closing day party in the paddock.

Santa Anita’s out-of-state business was robust, propelling The Great Race Place to finish up with a 7% increase in total pari-mutuel handle. On-track handle and attendance were up 1% over 2011. “This is our first winter/spring meet under the direction of the Stronach Group,” said Santa Anita C.E.O. Mark Verge. “Our Chairman, Frank Stronach has laid the groundwork for an exciting, vibrant future and we will continue to demonstrate that. “We promoted very aggressively at this meet and it paid off. Our initial goal was to showcase our five big days and make them bigger, and we did that. “We had 44,579 here on opening day (Dec. 26) which was a 10% increase over the previous year and it was the first time we’ve had more than 40,000 people out for opening day since 1999. “Sunshine Millions Day (Jan. 28) was also big for us. We had an on-track crowd of 30,514, which far outdid what any other track in the country did on that day. “Strub Stakes Day (Feb. 4) was a home run as well,” continued Verge. “Our all-sources handle was $15 million, which was three percent increase over last year. The Santa Anita Handicap Day (March 3) on-track crowd was up 10 percent over last year. “Santa Anita Derby Day (April 7) was outstanding and people were impressed with the energy and the excitement we had throughout the track. The Derby itself was an incredible race and we want to congratulate (owner) Paul Reddam, (trainer) Doug O’Neill and their entire team on the job they did with the winner I’ll Have Another. This is what people expect when they come to Santa Anita–great racing, great customer service and a feeling that we’ve got something very special going on here. “We got very aggressive with our Late Pick Four guarantee of $750,000 on Derby Day and the result was a total pool of $992,000, which was the biggest Pick Four pool of the meet and our overall handle of $17.8 million was very strong as well.”

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert breezed to his record 10th Santa Anita training title, winning 46 races, seven more than runner up John Sadler. Baffert was also the leading stakes-winning trainer, winning eight, three more than Sadler and Ron Ellis. Hronis Racing LLC led all owners by races won, with 10 victories. “We’d like to congratulate our leading owners, trainers and jockeys and thank them for their commitment during this meet,” said Verge. “We’d also like to sincerely thank our fans for all of their support and commitment. They are the reason we are in business and our customers will continue to be our top priority.”

Santa Anita will host the Breeders’ Cup event Nov. 2-3.

“We look forward to our Autumn Meet and to hosting the Breeders’ Cup for the sixth time in November,” Verge said. “It’ll be an honor to showcase this magnificent facility and to put on another world-class show on NBC.”