Ready, Set . . .GO! : Santa Anita Is Groomed for Racing Action, but the Recession Could Make Big Crowds a Long Shot

The people who run Santa Anita Park have not had a lot to smile about recently, but there were grins all around last week as work crews readied the venerable old racetrack for horses and hoped-for crowds.

The five-week Oak Tree meeting gets under way Wednesday under a recessionary cloud.

Ordinarily, Santa Anita is unaffected by hard times. In seasons past, even down-and-outers have made their way out to Arcadia for thrills, entertainment and a chance to win a buck or two under the track’s tall palms.

“This is just a different recession,” Oak Tree general manager Clifford C. Goodrich said.

For the third straight year, the average amount bettors wagered at the track has dipped and, since satellite wagering began in 1987, track attendance has been down 45%, officials said.

But there is still something about the prospect--after a long layoff--of crowds once again rushing the rails as the thoroughbreds rocket toward the finish line under the shadow of the San Gabriel Mountains that gives track people a charge.

The last race at Santa Anita was run in April. The autumn Oak Tree meet, a short session with only 27 days of racing, will end the 1992 racing season. The 85-day Los Angeles Turf Club meet, which starts at Santa Anita on Dec. 26, marks the beginning of the 1993 season.

The other day, workers were weeding flower beds in the infield, buffing long, empty stretches of floor in the grandstand betting area and dabbing paint at the artichoke-green grandstands (actually, a color called “Santa Anita blue-green”).

“Almost any time of the year, there’s something being painted around here,” media relations manager Richard Eng said.

Out in the stable area--the backside--trainers and their staffs were readying their charges for their minute or two in the spotlight.

Craig Dollase, son of trainer Wallace Dollase, stood in front of his father’s stable holding the halter of a horse named Century King, a muscular, 2-year-old chestnut scheduled to race for the first time on opening day.

“It’s the same old routine,” Dollase said. “You gallop him every day, get him fit enough for the race.”

Century King gave the newspaper reporter a suspicious look.

“They’re very intelligent animals,” Dollase said. “They know what’s going on.”

A few stalls away, Bob Champagne held a back leg of a horse named Gus Gus and nailed a metal shoe into the steed’s hoof.

“This work is tough on the back,” said the farrier, whose father and grandfather also shod horses.

The backside has been filling up with hot walkers and grooms, many of them Spanish-speaking men in boots and Stetsons. During off hours, they jam into the backside recreation room, clustering around a pool table and lounging at cafeteria tables. More than 800 such employees live in rooms and apartments on the backside during the season.

The track has been an employment boon for the San Gabriel Valley since it opened in 1934. About 5,000 people have worked there so far this year, track officials said.

Even on “dark” days, when there is no racing, about 150 people are puttering around, doing repairs and maintenance.

Satellite wagering, which permits bettors at other tracks and venues to watch and bet on Santa Anita races via television, has sliced into attendance. But it has also allowed the Arcadia track to stay in operation during the off-season, keeping many seasonal workers employed.

When Hollywood Park in Inglewood is in session from April to July, for example, Santa Anita employs about 1,800 to serve between 5,000 and 6,000 satellite wagerers.

“Five years ago, we’d be down to 50 people working at the track,” Oak Tree controller Glennon King said.

For the city of Arcadia, which gets one-third of a cent for each dollar wagered, the track means about $2.25 million a year in capital budget money, and a lot of sales tax revenue from restaurants and stores in the city frequented by track patrons and employees.

“It’s one of our most valuable resources,” finance director Jim Dale said.

Not all of the work going on at the track now is routine.

Near the west end of the grandstand, for example, technicians are setting up a new, $5-million broadcast center, scheduled to be operational on opening day. Video consultant Dwight Crumb showed some visitors around the center, which includes a broadcast studio, an editing room and a control room with monitors for 17 different cameras set up around the track.

Closed-circuit viewers will be able to watch the races from different angles, Crumb said. Those watching from the grandstands will be able to see split-screen shots, or tight pans on the front-runners. Turf Club viewers will be able to switch back and forth with control knobs.

Cameras will even delve into the saddling barn. And cameramen in so-called “moonraker” vehicles will roam the track, sending out odd-angle pictures of the races and shots of rail huggers, Crumb said.

Jim Hornbeck, manager for broadcast operations, sat at the controls in front of a wall of television monitors. He shifted the angle on a shot of the backstretch, zeroing in on a woman leading a horse through the paddock. Then he summoned up a wide-angle view of the grandstand.

The idea of multichannel television coverage at a racetrack is a new one, Hornbeck said.

“It’s like the Space Shuttle for the racetrack,” he said.