Linkup at County Date Festival

When I was 17, my father took me to the races at Santa Anita. We sat in the clubhouse. Daddy was having a cocktail and I was having a Coke.

A man came dashing in, shook his finger in Daddy’s face and said, “It’s men like you that ruin young girls like that.”

Then the man rushed off into the crowd to stamp out sin.

It was the only time I ever saw my father speechless.

I was reminded of the incident last week, when Carol Arth Waters and I went to the race track satellite at the Shalimar Sports Center on the grounds of the Riverside County Date Festival in Indio.

Shalimar is a large, unadorned building where the racing fans sit at tables. On one side of the room is a row of parimutuel windows. There the fans can make their bets at the same time the race-goers at Santa Anita make theirs.

All of the races at Santa Anita are shown on large television screens at the Shalimar Sports Center. Fans at the satellite see the horses being led out onto the track and the wagering information simultaneously. According to the racing program, “Displays are fed from the television headquarters of the operating track to an uplink station located on its grounds. Equipment there sends the pictures to a satellite transponder circling the Earth, and then a downlink at each wagering antenna at each wagering location receives it for showing on television there.”

Any questions? Personally, I dropped off when the word transponder popped up. All I know is I saw the horses parade out, get in the gates and run to the finish line.

The fans in the big room are strangely subdued. They don’t whoop and jump up and down and yell the names of the horses they bet the way people do at the track. Nor are the magnificent San Gabriel Mountains in view as they are at Santa Anita.

But it’s a popular way to while away an afternoon and your money.

There are 28 track satellites in California. Shalimar, in its third year, is the most productive. Last week, 1,349 people went to the center and bet $411,356. Two percent of the money bet at Shalimar stays there to be used for capital improvements. Plans include renovation of the building and a new restaurant.

Soon there will be more to do at the site than bet on horses. The Riverside County Date Festival opens on Feb. 15 and runs through Feb. 24.

In addition to all of the customary agriculture exhibits, an art show by artists from all over the United States and a county fair midway, there will be a nightly Arabian Knights fantasy, “Tail of the Magic Sword.” Magicians, mimes, stilt-walkers and a hypnotist will drift through the fair grounds to add to the show. Anyone who wears an Arabian costume will be allowed in free.

Camel and ostrich races will be held every afternoon. Both kinds of animals look as if they had been built by a couple of kids with wild imaginations, but they are real and they do race.

Last year, Carol rode a camel, not in the race but elegantly around a rink, seated on sort of a couch saddle. They even took her picture so she could show it to her doubting friends.

There will be a petting zoo, square-dancing and a Dixieland jazz festival. The county fair domestic animals will be on display, groomed, polished and shining.

The Fullenwider Auditorium is new this year. It will hold commercial exhibits and between festivals will be open for sports events, concerts and shows. The building is named for Robert M. C. Fullenwider, the manager of the first Date Festival in 1947. He suggested the Arabian architectural theme with its minarets.