Fall horse racing will return to Santa Anita Park this year. At today’s meeting (Feb. 17) of the California Horse Racing Board, Santa Anita Park won unanimously on both counts it had applied for, the return of racing to the historic park after a 1-year absence due to safety concerns regarding a state-mandated synthetic turf that has since been replaced with real dirt, and complete control of those fall dates during which the track had been leased to the non-profit Oak Tree Racing every year since 1969.
The return of racing comes at a great time for the City of Arcadia since the meet usually generates more than $200,000 during the period, including about $185,000 for the City’s cut of bets placed, and the rest from additional sales taxes from increased spending at local businesses.
Breeders’ Cup was run during Oak Tree Racing at Santa Anita two consecutive years in 2008-09 for the first and only time in the history of the Breeders’ Cup. Last year’s decision by the CHRB forced Oak Tree to move to Hollywood Park for one season and Southern California lost a return of Breeders’ Cup. Hollywood Park has been clinging to dwindling race crowds and purses each year as the owners await a rebound in the housing market to convert the property into a residential development. Oak Tree Racing has been one of the top contributors to local charities, donating more than $400,000 each year, according to Oak Tree executive director Sherwood Chillingworth. But much of that was cut back last year when it was forced to leave Santa Anita, and all of it is presently on hold.
By a 6-0 vote before about 100 people at Santa Anita, the board opted to transfer the dates, Sept. 28 to Nov. 6, back to Santa Anita instead of returning to Hollywood Park for 2011, according to BloodhorseRacing.com.
But hold your horses before getting too excited; chairman Keith Brackpool emphasized that the decision only applies this year for now, and Santa Anita must do a little legal jockeying to comply with state rules governing the number of race dates that can be run. Rather than Santa Anita’s Los Angeles Turf Club managing the fall dates, the fall meet will be operated by the Pacific Racing Association, which just happens to be a subsidiary of Santa Anita parent company MI Developments. And Santa Anita must finalize a financial payment to Oak Tree as compensation for some dates and events to which it holds rights. Chillingworth told ArcadiasBest.com this afternoon that even though Oak Tree will no longer be managing the event, it will still be associated with it and remain headquartered at Santa Anita for now. In a nutshell, the relationship between Santa Anita and Oak Tree has been reversed, he said. Instead of Oak Tree running the event and paying Santa Anita a fee and a percentage of earnings, which usually came to between $4 mil. – $5 mil., Pacific Racing will run the event and Oak Tree will get paid a fee. Given the circumstances, Chillingworth said he is satisfied with what Oak Tree came away with.
Meanwhile, CHRB plans to create a new permanent state racing dates calendar for all of 2012. Frank Stronach of MI Developments has been lobbying for year-round horse racing, running only 3 or 4 days each week instead of divvying up the year so that only one track has exclusive horse racing within its competitive region for several months each year.
“This is great news for Santa Anita and for the California horse racing industry,” Santa Anita President George Haines said in a statement. “This means so much to so many people. From all of our employees and the people who work within the industry, to our fans and to the entire business community here in the San Gabriel Valley, this means jobs, revenue and the opportunity to remain viable and to grow our business into the future.” “Obviously, this is very welcome news, on several fronts,” said Arcadia City Manager Don Penman. “Not just from the standpoint of providing fans with the opportunity to visit what we believe is the most beautiful racing facility in the world, but having live racing back here in the fall is a great opportunity for our hotels, restaurants and other businesses in this very tough economy.”
— By Scott Hettrick