Santa Anita Park Opening Day this season was December 28, 2019. Mike Smith, Hall of Fame jockey, rode 4 stakes winners, including Omaha Beach for Grade 1 record. The attendance was 35,085.
District Attorney Jackie Lacey finds no crime or wrongdoing in horse deaths. Prosecutor says there is no evidence owners, jockeys or trainers knowingly raced injured animals at Santa Anita Park over the past year. Since July 2018, 56 horses have died at Arcadia race track. Of those, 34 died while running on Santa Anita's main dirt track. Santa Anita Park averages about 2.04 deaths per 1000 racing starts, according to the Jockey Club. The national average in 2018 was 1.68 deaths per 1000 starts. The District Attorney's report includes 27 recommended changes to improve safety and reduce fatalities. See also same story at Arcadia Weekly, p. 2, December 26, 2019.
46th Annual Mayor's Community Breakfast to honor women of Arcadia, on February 21, 2020. Mayor April Verlato will give the State of the City Address. Dr. Jasmine Sharma will give keynote address
Holiday decorations spread the word of "peace" in eight different languages at Arcadia Gardens apartment building. It started as an idea to win an Arcadia Beautiful Holiday Decoration Award at 1011 West Duarte Road, by Barbara Scott.
Horse racing deaths report delayed. California Horse Racing Board (CHRB), the state regulatory board, aims for January 15 release of investigation of Santa Anita Park incidents. The report was supposed to become public before the end of the year. Several new policies and safety regulations were introduced the past year as a result of a public outcry over the horse deaths at Santa Anita. The state is doing more drug testing, more pre-race exams, improving medical record keeping, pushing for new technology. Santa Anita Park installed a PET Scan machine to help identify pre-existing conditions in the fetlock area of a horse. To date, 37 horses have died at Santa Anita Park since December 2018. Despite the deaths, the equine medical director Rick Arthur stressed that the number of fatalities in California is actually decreasing, saying there have been 58 deaths at race tracks across the state in 2019, compared to 67 deaths in 2018.
California Horse Racing Board (CHRB): ban more drugs, release tests. The CHRB wants California Governor Gavin Newsom to pursue changes to state law that would allow the agency to immediately release results of a positive horse drug test and permit more stakeholders, including jockeys and track veterinarians, to access a horse's medical history. Currently, drug test results are confidential. The changes are part of an effort to curb equine deaths and improve safety at California race tracks. Nearly 40 horses have died at Santa Anita Park in the last year.
57-year-old Richard Henry Solis of Arcadia faces two felony counts of grand theft from elder and six counts of petty theft from elder. The alleged crimes involved Solis claiming the victims had injured him with their vehicles and then asking for money for medical expenses or stealing their belongings, reportedly stealing $100,000 from the victims.
Arcadia High School's Club Day is an annual event that showcases more than 60 Arcadia High School clubs and celebrates the diversity of its students' interests and passions.
Santa Anita Park: weather could impact track. Santa Anita Park agrees to California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) demand to cancel horse racing in case of inclement weather during the winter-spring meet that begins December 26. Jockey Joel Rosario is mentioned in this article.Gregory Ferraro, new chairman of the California Horse Racing Board, a former race track veterinarian who was appointed to the board by Governor Gavin Newsom earlier this year, pledged the state board would be pursuing stricter regulations than it has in the past.
Arcadia Woman's Club invites local residents to holiday fashion show fundraiser on Saturday, November 9 at the historic clubhouse at 324 South First Avenue. The cost is $50 per person.
Santa Anita Park: another horse dies; summary on its way. Death is fifth in month; The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) report on past meet is due in December. GQ Covergirl, a 6-year-old mare trained by Doug O'Neill injured her front legs Friday on Santa Anita's training track and was euthanized.
Dorothy Denne, longtime Arcadia humorist, "Mother of the Force" honored by Arcadia Police Foundation at the Arcadia Police Foundation's Halloween Hoopla. Arcadia Mayor April Verlato and her husband attended. For 20 years, Dorothy wrote a weekly column called "Dorothy's Place" in Arcadia Weekly. She was a teacher for her career and has been a volunteer at the Arcadia Police Department. In 2015 she spearheaded the effort to bring back the K-9 program.
Arcadia City Council voted 4-to-0 to pass a new food hall plan for Downtown Arcadia at 33 West Huntington Drive. The food hall will contain seven to eight different food vendors of a pre-existing building, while the upper floors will continue to operate as self-storage units. One of the project goals is to preserve the existing building and keep the midcentury look of it, according to City of Arcadia Senior Economic Development Analyst Tim Schwehr.
Stronach Group and Santa Anita Park issue statement following the death of a 3-year-old colt named Emtech, euthanized on September 28. Two-time Kentucky Derby winning jockey Mario Gutierrez was tossed off in the incident. Santa Anita park will be reviewing the factors that could have contributed to Emtech's injury. Veterinarians Dr. Dionne Benson and Dr. Dana Stead were employed to euthanize and investigate.
Arcadia Unified School District's First Avenue Middle School music teacher Michael Danielson is one of only 16 teachers to be recognized as a 2019-2020 Teacher of the Year.
Successful opener. Jockey sets stakes record on first day of Santa Anita Park meet. Jockey John Velazquez won both the Chandelier Stakes and the American Pharoah Stakes, riding Bast and Eight Rings, respectively. Both horses are trained by Bob Baffert.
Arcadia's energy efficient street lighting program to start next month. Southern California Edison (SCE) is replacing SCE-owned inefficient High Pressure Sodium (HPS) street lights with energy efficient Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights. Conversion to LED technology will help reduce energy usage and cost by approximately $11,500 annually.
Arcadia City balks at surge in animal control bill. New contract with Pasadena Humane Society would raise costs fivefold, from $90,000 to $525,000 annually. See also Arcadia Weekly, p. 4, September 12, 2019.