Shut ‘Em Off Shuts Down Meet

It was almost 6:30 Monday evening when Modesto Linares eased Shut ‘Em Off past the finish line, the last horse in the last race on the last day of the 58th Fairplex Park meeting at Pomona.

Not a historic moment, certainly, but a significant one nonetheless.

If all goes according to plan, when racing returns to Pomona on Sept. 11, Fairplex will have a new look. The cattle, goat, sheep and swine barns that now line the backstretch will be gone. In their place will be a new one-mile dirt track and, even better, a seven-eighth-mile turf course.

But it is doubtful that opening day in 1997 will be able to match closing day in 1996. Two reasons:

--When Pure Red, Elsa and Athens Belle finished 1-2-3 in the 10th race Thursday, the $1 trifecta paid a track-record $29,278.80, beating the record set a year ago by more than $5,000. There were $7 worth of winning tickets sold. Someone went home smiling.

--When Martin Pedroza brought Philadelphia Dave home first in the 11th race, it was his 22nd victory of the 19-day meeting, leaving him only one behind Victor Espinoza with two races to go.

Fortunately for Espinoza, his challenger finished out of the running in the last two races and the 24-year-old from Mexico City by way of the Hipodromo de las Americas, Bay Meadows and Golden Gate Fields won the jockey championship. His 23 victories were one more than Pedroza’s 22 and two more than David Flores’ 21.

Flores, however, did establish a track record during the meeting, overtaking Francisco Mena as Fairplex’s all-time winning rider with 257 victories. The training title went to Mel Stute, who saddled nine winners. Stute was also the leading trainer in 1971 and 1986.

The other numbers were less pleasing to Fairplex officials. On-track attendance dropped 17.4% to 80,733, but that was offset by attendance at satellite wagering sites, which jumped 16.3% to 206,769. Combined, that made for an overall increase of 5.9% to 287,502.

Handle also reflected that shift. While total wagering was up 7.4% to $103,298,938, that was primarily due to a 27% increase in out-of-state betting. At Pomona itself, the handle dropped 22.7% to $14,454,850.

Some of it was even bet on Shut ‘Em Off, the last horse in the last race on the last day.