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.
Santa Anita Park set a record for total attendance (2,690,834) and had it highest daily average attendance (31,289) since 1948, as the 1981-82 meeting closed April 21. Facts and figures about the racing season are presented.
If Santa Anita Park race track and other tracks cannot successfully compete with the just instituted state lottery that results from the passage of Proposition 37, the horse racing industry may go to Sacramento to seek tax relief, according to Robert Strub, president of the Los Angeles Turf Club.
A moratorium prohibiting the subdivision of large horse property lots in South Arcadia ended June 20 after a tie vote due to the absence of Council member Charles Gilb.
At the Board of Education meeting there was some discussion of the Space Utilization Committee's recommendation to close two elementary schools, Bonita Park and Baldwin Stocker. Robert Kladifke, a member of the committee, objected to closing the newest and most educationally modern school in the district, Baldwin Stocker. Two public hearings are scheduled.
The Arcadia City Council has decided to allow horses to remain within 35 feet of a neighbor's home as long as the horse was there first. Previously the city code would have required horses to move if a new home was built within 100 feet of the horse.
Second of five articles about Asian immigrants concerns the differing cultural stresses that arise when East meets West. See hard copy in VF "Population" item #42.
Council revises tax for admissions over race track protests. The revisions recommended apply to the existing admissions tax (a tax on other events, entertainment, amusement or competition other than horse racing held on premises with a capacity of 1,000 or more.)
Petitions are being circulated that are aimed at thwarting the possible closure of two elementary schools. The savings would amount to only .7% of an $18 million school budget - not enough to justify closing the schools, according to the parents of students at Bonita Park and Baldwin Stocker.
The 1980 Oak Tree Racing Association season set records in attendance, parimutual handle, wagering and horsemen benefits. Awards for the meet are enumerated: John Henry was voted Horse of the Meeting. Sandy Hawley won the riding championship.
Police Captain Neal Johnson assures members of the Arcadia Business Association at their April dinner meeting that there should be no more traffic problems with the Olympic equestrian events at Santa Anita Park race track than on ordinary racing days.
Despite the protests of relatives and friends of the victims, 21 year old Arcadian Jim Bates will face only misdemeanor charges for the freeway deaths of two people. Bates drove across three traffic lanes in an attempt to make the Baldwin Avenue offramp of the Foothill Freeway. The accident happened on April 16, 1982.
In Arcadia, a total of 772 19 and 20-year-olds had registered at the city's two post offices by the end of the second week of registration for selective service.