Panorama of Santa Anita Race Track built by E.J."Lucky" Baldwin and opened December 7, 1907. Main club house with three cupolos atop is on left. There are about 8 jockeys and their mounts on track and the grandstand is filled.
Nine sulkies and horses with drivers racing at Santa Anita Park. View is across track and racers into grandstand. Photo by photographer Milton Bell of Monrovia.
Newspaper page from sports section of L.A. Sunday Times reporting opening of Santa Anita Park, built by "Lucky" Baldwin and opened December 1907. See more legible hard copy in VF Baldwin, Elias J.-Horses and horse racing.
Photographically reproduced copy of an old newspaper photo taken in 1936 which is an aerial view looking north west over original race track built by Baldwin. In lower right corner can be seen Santa Anita Ave lined with Eucalyptus. On lower left, one can see present Campus Drive. Across top third of photo, one can see Huntington Drive. Note how small the trees are that line the street.
The library does not have a print of this negative. The negative is of two passes to Santa Anita Park. One is marked "LADY" and is dated 1907-1908. A large number 39 appears in the middle. The second pass is round. The word "COMPLIMENTARY" appears at the top. It is dated 1907-8, has an unidentified signature near the center. The words Santa Anita Park and Los Angeles Racing Association also appear on the pass.
Late afternoon shadows show in this photo of 10 horses and riders competing in a race at Baldwin's original race track. Grandstand is seen on the right with capacity crowd. Photo was taken from in the infield. Trees seen in distance would be along Santa Anita Ave.
Many horses with riders are seen galloping west across infield of original Elias J."Lucky" Baldwin Santa Anita Race Track. We were told by Vesta Tucker Reeves, that the infield was used for rodeos when racing season was not in progress. This apparently was taken from grandstand.
Page from Los Angeles Times of March 21, 1909 telling of the coming end of racing at Santa Anita Park when State of California will close it with the ban on horse racing, April 20, 1909. See legible copy in VF Baldwin, Elias J. "Lucky"-Horses and Horse Racing.
Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin sitting in his box at his Santa Anita Race Track. The box has curved railing and side. There appear to be five women in box with him and also two men. Baldwin wears his familiar black slouch hat.
Photo of complimentary day pass to 1908-1909 season at Baldwin's Santa Anita Race Track signed by F.G. Randle, secretary and treasurer of Los Angeles Racing Association.
Grandstand and portion of track at Ascot Park, a racetrack built near the center of Los Angeles that offered racing from 1903-1907. It was closed due to a city ordinance forbidding gambling. Baldwin's track, Santa Anita Park, which opened in December 1907 was designed and built by the same architect that built Ascot Park: A.M. Allen. The two tracks are similar in style and are occasionally mistaken for each other. In this photo the stands are full and there are eight horses with jockeys on the track.
Aerial view taken looking southeast from position about over present Arboretum. Photo shows Santa Anita Park, probably in opening season. Present City Hall sits in area just beyond cars parked at east end of track. Part of oval of old Santa Anita track built by Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin is seen in upper portion of photo, in area that is now Arcadia County Park. Duarte Road is seen crossing photo in upper right corner. Present Arcadia County Park area is in this photo, bordered on the north by Pacific Electric Railroad tracks. A train has just brought a group to the races and they are seen walking in center of photo. White square seen near right side, is slab left from hangars when U.S. Army Balloon School occupied this site, 1917-1927.
These two long buildings appear to be buildings at the Balloon School. They have been left from the time that "Lucky" Baldwin's Santa Anita Race Track was on this site. There is considerable snow on San Gabriel Mountains behind.
Aerial view looking northeast across Santa Anita Park toward mountains. Note training track called Anita Chiquita has been added (lower left corner), open grandstand has been added to west of covered stand. Note, too, that work has begun to change Balloon School site to Arcadia County Park. Santa Anita Avenue is tree-lined street running entire width of photo about middle of print.
In this aerial view looking toward the east, the oval directly in the center of photo was a training track belonging to Santa Anita. This was removed to make room for the Fashion Park mall. The small circular track across what is now Baldwin Avenue and the oval track farther south belonged to a private riding stable. The remains of the Los Angeles Jockey Club Track which Joe Smoot and Anita Baldwin started but did not complete in 1933, can be seen in lower right corner. This photo belongs to the Huntington Library. It is shown here for research only.
Copy of pages for part of first and second races from racing program for Santa Anita Park, April 13, 1909. Left hand page includes an ad for the Southern Pacific Railway.