Santa Anita Park will have thoroughbred racing from December 26 through April 22, a season expanded by two weeks. The horse racing bill AB 3383 provided other changes in the sport that will affect Santa Anita Park.
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.
Dennis Moore, 67 year old track superintendent since November 2014, helps Santa Anita Park race track shine, horses stay safe. He is currently maintaining the racing surfaces at Santa Anita Park, Los Alamitos, and Del Mar.
View of Santa Anita Race Track and Grandstand looking west. There are twelve horses and riders racing and the grandstand appears to be nearly full. (Date is disputed to be after 1955, not 1950, per researcher race track historian Leonard Wynne, who says the inner track part, known as the "Turf Course" was put in during 1955. The inner track part is not where the horses are seen running.)
The current racing meeting will open Thursday December 27. Sunday racing will be inaugurated for the first time in Arcadia. Track officials are uncertain as to how the energy crisis will affect operations.
Senator Dianne Feinstein weighs in on Santa Anita Park tragedies. In a letter to California Horse Racing Board, she called for racing to be suspended at Santa Anita Park after the deaths of twenty-three horses since late December.
A drainage problem forced the cancellation of horse racing at Santa Anita Park since three inches of rain fell yesterday. The track has had to cancel racing 12 times since the synthetic track was installed two years ago. In 2006, the California Horse Racing Board banned dirt surfaces from thoroughbred tracks. Santa Anita Park has tried two synthetic tracks but the surfaces have not worked out. Officials announced they will replace the synthetic surface before the Oak Tree Meet in the fall.
Santa Anita Park: horses must get OK of veterinarian team to race. This is a joint effort between the California Horse Racing Board and Santa Anita Park to enhance safety measures and reviews to further protect horses. Twenty-nine horses have died at Santa Anita Park since December 26.
George Haines, the interim president of Santa Anita Park since Ron Charles resigned, will soon be named president. He takes the reins at a time of uncertainty and change at the track and in the horse racing industry. Some of the issues and challenges that Haines will face are discussed. Haines is 55 years old and started working for Santa Anita Park in 1972.
Horse racing regulations lead to fewer equine deaths. Fatalities in California have been cut in half in 2 years and plummeted to the lowest levels since 1990 as a result of reforms implemented after dozens of death at Santa Anita Park in 2019. The reforms in the last two years include strict limitations on use of whips by jockey, a prohibition on most medications before races, installation of new imaging technologies to catch injuries sooner, more opportunities for veterinarians and stewards to sideline horses and a mandatory requirement for trainers to participate in the postmortem.
Santa Anita Park has live-racing for the first time on the same day as Kentucky Derby. The track will be rooting for Santa Anita Derby winner California Chrome, a California-bred race horse.
A spokesperson for Santa Anita Consolidated has indicated that there is no intention of moving the Santa Anita Park race track to the $100 million sports complex proposed for the City of Los Angeles by Hollywood Park, Inc.
Another horse dies at Santa Anita Park, the twenty-sixth fatality since December 26. Kochees, a 9-year-old gelding, injured in Saturday's sixth race, had to be euthanized.
5,133 attended the first day of inter-track wagering at Santa Anita Park where wagering was offered on racing at Del Mar. $1,069,980 was wagered on the simulcast races. Santa Anita Park is one of 10 off-track wagering satellites.
A special 8 page supplement offers a variety of articles on the Santa Anita Park track, its history, activities, facilities and its contributions to the community.
The City Council is considering collecting taxes on free admissions to the Santa Anita Park race track. It would mean considerably greater income for the City.