By Dick Jerardi
My first visit to Santa Anita was nearly 40 years ago – for the 1986 Breeders’ Cup. It was the third BC and my first covering it for the “Philadelphia Daily News.”
The venue was then and remains today one of the most iconic not just in American racing, but in worldwide sports. My breath was taken away in 1986 when I walked through the interior to the box seats and first saw the San Gabriel Mountains looming beyond the backstretch.
It was no different last Sunday morning when I took the same walk from the parking lot past the statues of Seabiscuit and John Henry and Zenyatta up the escalators to the boxes and that view, awe-inspiring then, awe-inspiring today.
This walk brought rare joy because I was taking three friends for their first visit to the “Great Race Place,” now celebrating its 90th year. I knew they would feel what I always feel when I enter the track 20 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles and just the other side of those San Gabriels from Pasadena and the equally iconic Rose Bowl.
It was a rare late morning race card due to the Super Bowl (we had a reserved room in a nice establishment across from the track to watch what would become an Eagles tour de force). It was a time to show off one of America’s seven most important national race tracks (Churchill Downs, Gulfstream Park, Keeneland, Saratoga, Belmont Park, Santa Anita, Del Mar in some order).
I took my friends past the paddock, the walking ring, the statues while explaining the history from Seabiscuit through Zenyatta and my most recent visit to Santa Anita for the 2019 Breeders’ Cup when my friend Carlos Guerrero trained Spun to Run to win the BC Dirt Mile and set me off on a wild gambling run that would culminate with a giant score in the Turf when Bricks and Mortar clinched Horse of the Year by getting up just in time to beat a 50-1 shot that I just happened to have under the heavy favorite in the exacta.
One of my longtime California friends had gotten us box seats just up from the finish line and we settled in for the first of nine races. It was literally a perfect day with the sun out, 70 degrees, the promise of the races and the Super Bowl looming.
There was just one lingering concern. The owners of Santa Anita and Gulfstream have been talking about selling the race tracks because the real estate on which they sit is so valuable. No way to know for sure, but it could be as much as $2 billion for each.
I explained that to my friends as we got knocked out of the early Pick 5 in the first race. I also said, if it came to that, I really hoped there were people in the sport with very deep pockets who could band together and buy both tracks if they are, in fact, for sale.
Racing in this country without Gulfstream Park and especially Santa Anita just would not be the same.
My friend, trainer Michael McCarthy, stopped by for a few races. We talked about his potential Kentucky Derby horses. He also put everything into perspective when he pointed to the mountains and showed where the fires had been a month before and how they had spread for miles.
He lives with his family not far from the Santa Anita stable gate. Many of the houses in his neighborhood were ruined. His home was spared, but it will be months before they can move back in as much of what was inside is not salvageable. He was just thankful they will be able to recover when so many will be starting over from scratch.
Bob Baffert won the Sweet Life Stakes with odds-on favorite Casalu, a single in the late Pick 5 I had put together for our group. The great Flavien Prat put her in front and kept her there all the way. And there was Prat loose on the lead again in Race 9 with Terry’s Boy, one of two horses we needed to get home in the Pick 5. They got home and so did we – Prat’s third win of the day, our first.
With that, it was time to head back out the same way we came, another memorable visit to one of the Wonders of the Sporting World, a dominating Eagles win on the horizon to complete an absolutely perfect day.
