Horse Racing’s Hall of Fame Is Off and Running

If you don’t pick the winner of today’s Santa Anita Derby, there is a place where you can go Monday to try and figure out why.

At 201 Colorado Place in Arcadia, northeast of the race track, a visitor passes concrete horse-head statues (which once graced the Perris farm of movie mogul Louis B. Mayer) and enters what may be the Southland’s best-kept secret.

It appears to be just a hacienda, but instead, it is, among other things, the California Horse Racing Hall of Fame, a museum and a library. And it’s also the headquarters of the California Thoroughbred Breeders Assn.

Library, Memorabilia Also

Beyond the offices of the breeders association is a library of more than 10,000 horse-related volumes and mini-museum displays of such racing memorabilia as the blue and gold racing silks of Bing Crosby. A portion of a wall enshrines the names of the initial inductees to the California Horse Racing Hall of Fame.

The building is open free to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Although thus far, according to Bob Sweeney, CTBA executive vice president, only about 25 people stop by on any given day, they might see more than they expected. Earlier this week, for instance, actor John Forsythe walked in to register one of his Cal-breds.

“President Reagan, who used to breed thoroughbreds in California, was one of our regular dues-paying members,” said Rodney F. Pitts, CTBA assistant general manager. “He has been made an honorary lifetime member.”

The big problem at the headquarters is space, so some library shelves were taken out after the first-ever California Horse Racing Hall of Fame became a reality, in order to display the names. Thirteen humans and five horses were inducted at a dinner-dance in the Santa Anita infield late last year--names such as trainer Charlie Whittingham, jockey Bill Shoemaker, race caller Joe Hernandez, thoroughbred star Swaps.

“We have been in discussion with the Los Angeles State and County Arboretum people, who are similarly interested in establishing a thoroughbred-related museum on their grounds,” Sweeney said.

Meanwhile, there is no shortage of reading material and other feasting for the eyes at the present location:

- A miniature bronze replica of the great Australian runner Phar Lap, complete with the information that his heart is on display in the nation’s capital of Canberra.

- The framed racing silks, adorning two hallways, of about 60 past and present CTBA directors. One faded green and white set belongs to Louis Rowan and bears the label of “Merry & Co., saddlers, London.”

- The authentic silvered hoofs of the immortal horse Seabiscuit.

- A large silver trophy commemorating the famous Maryland match race at Pimlico in 1938 between Seabiscuit and War Admiral (won by the West Coaster, Seabiscuit, by four lengths). At the bottom are the words: “The event that put California racing on the map.”

Until more space is available, however, the big attraction so far for visitors is the Carleton F. Burke Memorial Library, which has the breeding and racing records of every thoroughbred produced in America and Great Britain for more than 200 years. It also has records of horses from France, Australia and other countries.

Also on the premises is a TV set and videos on such subjects as foal management, stallions, reruns of great stakes races.

Every now and then, seated at one of the tables, may be found an ordinary horseplayer, searching for some elusive something in a yellowing old copy of the Daily Racing Form--in a library that allows going to heaven before you die.