Breeders’ Cup could become a fixture at Santa Anita

Saturday will be a huge day for Santa Anita’s historic and venerable racetrack.

April 22 will be bigger.

On Saturday, 10 of the fastest 3-year-olds in the world will leave the gate in the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby, hoping that, in a mile and an eighth, they will have shown that they are Kentucky Derby caliber. The local Derby has long been one of the prestigious semifinals for the ultimate main event, held the first Saturday of May under the Twin Spires at Churchill Downs.

April 22, just down the road from those Twin Spires, 12 men and one woman will meet in Lexington, Ky., and decide, most likely, that Santa Anita will become the home of the Breeders’ Cup. That might mean permanent home. Certainly semi-permanent.

This year’s Breeders’ Cup will be in Louisville in the fall, under those Twin Spires. The 2011 site has not been chosen, and usually would be by now. There is a reason for that.

After last year’s Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita, its second in a row and the first time one site had been allowed consecutive events, many of the 13 people who make up the board of directors of the Breeders’ Cup decided they liked what they had seen.

In the 26 years of moving from track to track, there were highs and lows. The Breeders’ Cup had given the sport an added showcase to the Triple Crown season. But it had often suffered through bad autumn weather, often in smaller metro markets. The horsemen were relatively happy, but the Breeders’ Cup wanted to extend its reach.

“We have rotated our event for 26 years,” says Greg Avioli, chief executive of the Breeders’ Cup, “and nobody believes that’s the best way to grow the sport. That left us with a limited ability to get a new audience.”

When 96,496 people showed up last year for the two days of racing at Santa Anita, framed by early November blue skies, warm days and the ever-present San Gabriel Mountains, the obvious was too clear to ignore.

Then Zenyatta sealed the deal.

When the Queen Bee of horse racing turned for home, well behind as usual, and then beat the boys to the finish line for the first time in the history of the Breeders’ Cup’s most prestigious race, it rocked a place that had seen the likes of Seabiscuit and Affirmed and may have never seen anything quite like this. Avioli, Chairman Will Farish and their board of directors had the same goose bumps as everybody else.

“It’s hard to argue that last year wasn’t the best Breeders’ Cup ever,” Avioli says. “Zenyatta certainly made it the most exciting.”

Quickly, the board formed a committee. That committee has now studied the feasibility of a permanent host site for an event that had been a semi-happy wanderer.

The likely result is an announcement that makes Santa Anita the Breeders’ Cup host venue and leaves Churchill Downs with enough occasional action to keep the large Kentucky horse race influence satisfied.

“Santa Anita is the perfect venue, given the time of the year of our event,” says Avioli, who is not one of the 13 voting members.

Louisville in November can turn cold, wet and miserable. It is also a vastly smaller market than Los Angeles. Plus, Churchill already has racing’s Super Bowl that first Saturday in May, so spreading around the sport’s prestige seems reasonable.

The devil is in the detail, and that is what will be ironed out. The decision could make Santa Anita the home of the event, period. More likely, it will become the host site, have the Breeders’ Cup most of the years and be the dominant player, with some sort of regular or occasional rotation for other sites, usually Churchill Downs.

Avioli says the controversy of Santa Anita’s synthetic surface is not an issue, that there are new generations of improved surfaces ahead and that his group’s only emphasis is on safety. He also says that, just because the Breeders’ Cup board decides it wants a venue, it still must get a deal with that venue. He says the Oak Tree Racing Assn., which leases Santa Anita for the autumn dates that would include future Breeders’ Cups, was an excellent partner the last two years.

Saturday, the big deal for the Santa Anita Derby is likely to be a horse named Lookin At Lucky. Nineteen days later, the big deal for Santa Anita is likely to have a similar name. Lookin At Happy.

bill.dwyre@latimes.com.