Santa Anita : Bettors Not the Only Winners--or Losers

Jimmy Broderick and Jack Hudson sat in a Tiny’s restaurant and bakery barely a furlong from Santa Anita Park, poring over their racing forms one recent morning, preparing to do battle with the odds at the track.

The two Arizona men said they have not missed a Derby race at Santa Anita Park in five years. Broderick, a newspaperman, and Hudson, an auto dealer, had arrived from Phoenix on their annual sojourn and had ensconced themselves in a hotel near the track. They figured that by the time they headed home, they would spend about $900--not including the cost of playing the ponies.

“Of course we spend more when we win,” Broderick said.

Broderick and his friend are among nearly 3 million people expected to visit the track by the time the 1985-86 Santa Anita meet ends. Many of them leave at least some of their money in the cash registers of nearby restaurants, hotels and other businesses.

Track-related customers make up 25% of Tiny’s business during the racing season, manager Art Page said. Broderick’s room at the Embassy Suites hotel cost him $88 a night. During the racing seasons, about 20% of the hotel’s bookings are connected with the track, assistant manager Jeff Lackey said.

All of which makes Santa Anita a major source of economic activity in the area.

Arthur Hershey, personnel director of the Los Angeles Turf Club Inc., which operates Santa Anita, estimated its overall annual economic impact at $175 million--3 1/2 times its $50 million payroll--although no survey has been done recently to determine how much of that money is spent in the San Gabriel Valley.

At peak season, the track employs 4,000 people, according to Hershey. Kelvin Mason, executive director of the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce, said the track, which opened in 1934, is one of the largest employers in the San Gabriel Valley.

The city’s share of the $689 million wagered last year was nearly $2.2 million, about 10% of the city’s income, city Finance Director Jerry Schuster said. Since it began paying taxes to the city in 1946, it has contributed more than $20.3 million to municipal coffers, according to the track’s media guide.

Part Owner of Mall

In addition, the Turf Club’s parent company, Santa Anita Realty Enterprises Inc., is part owner of the adjacent Santa Anita Fashion Park shopping mall, which recorded sales of $165 million in 1984. Together, the mall and track generated more than $1.6 million in sales tax to the city in fiscal year 1984-85. They paid more than $975,000 in property taxes that year to the city, Arcadia Unified School District and the county.

“Financially, it’s a big impact, no doubt about it,” Schuster said. “I think it’s a positive. We get a lot of revenue from the track and I don’t know how else we would generate it to give people all the services they get.”

Most businessmen interviewed agreed with Schuster’s assessment.

“Some people will stay the whole season,” said Art Rico, a desk clerk at the Santa Anita Inn across the street from the track, adding that 80% of the inn’s business during racing seasons is associated with the track.

Several merchants in Santa Anita Fashion Park said they receive spillover traffic from the track.

Lillyan Smith, assistant manager of William Pitt Jewelers in the shopping mall, said that because jewelry often is bought on impulse, it makes attractive gifts for lucky bettors.

Bought Diamond Ring

“We get business from the track all the time,” Smith said. “One day last week, someone (from the track) came in and bought his wife a diamond ring worth several thousand dollars. To me it’s an asset because I think the store has more foot traffic than other mall stores.”

Some stores in Santa Anita Fashion Park also benefit from “race track widows,” women who shop while their husbands are at the track.

Nicole De France, a clerk at Century Stationery on the mall, estimated that on weekends half the store’s customers come from the track. “We get tons of (race track) people” she said. “We have a lot of California souvenirs. It’s busier than busy in here.”

A mile east on Huntington Drive, the Derby restaurant, which was owned for many years by the late jockey George Woolf, bulges with hundreds of pieces of racing memorabilia. The Derby remains a favorite after-race gathering spot for jockeys, trainers and horse owners and attracts a steady stream of race track regulars, who account for at least 10% of annual sales, according to Charles (Chip) Sturniolo, a present owner. A winning day for one of his patrons usually translates into a good day at the Derby. Hundred-dollar tips are not uncommon, he said.

Winners Want Champagne

“They might bring in 20 people and they don’t even want to see the menu,” Sturniolo said. “They don’t care what it costs. You can definitely tell by their mood whether they had a good day or a bad day. If they win, they want champagne. If they don’t, they just want dinner.”

But a few business proprietors complained that traffic congestion generated by the track keeps local customers away and actually hurts their businesses.

“At times, their (fans) coming in and leaving is an absolute detriment to the mall,” said Bernard Miller, owner of the Happiness Is gift shop in Santa Anita Fashion Park. “The locals certainly stay away. It’s a major problem.”

Santa Anita’s activity is concentrated in the five months it operates each year. The regular racing season begins with the four-month Santa Anita meet on Dec. 26. The Oak Tree meet is held for five to six weeks in October and November. More than 3.9 million people attended the races last year.

On busy days, the crowds can equal the town’s 54,000 population, tying up traffic in the area for about an hour around midday when the meets start and for another hour in the early evening after the last race.

Bruce Handy, manager of Marie Callender’s restaurant on Baldwin Avenue about a mile away, said the track is a mixed blessing. “It helps quite a bit, but the number of people walking out on checks triples,” Handy said.

Alan Balch, senior vice president of the Turf Club and assistant general manager of Santa Anita, insisted that the facility’s contributions far outweigh its disadvantages to the community. Balch said the traffic problems are relatively minor and most residents manage to avoid them by shopping at off-peak hours.

“There is very little, if any, negative impact,” Balch said in an interview last week. “The merchants (who complain) may overlook the latent or hidden contribution to the economy. When he is making sales, how much of that is done to people who are connected to the track. All this makes employment, makes for jobs, and when you have jobs, other people make money and that money flows through the economy and generates (buying power) they don’t see or don’t relate to the track.”

Most business people are reconciled to take the good with the bad. As one ice cream shop owner put it, “You can’t have everything.”