Santa Anita Opener Is a Stevens Closer

Horse racing and Hollywood once went together like a hand in a pocket. Horse racing was the hand. Hollywood was the pocket. Hollywood didn’t mind. Its movers and shakers liked gambling or else they wouldn’t have been in the movie business. Actors, indentured slaves in the old studio system, sympathized with the horses. They ran when and where they were told.

Producer Hal Roach was a co-founder of Santa Anita Park, which opened on Christmas Day in 1934. Among the crowd that afternoon were Al Jolson, Clark Gable and Will Rogers. Future regulars included Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra.

You still occasionally see stars at Santa Anita, but it’s nothing like the old days. The track’s new owner, Frank Stronach, is trying to bring them--and everyone else who used to frequent the races--back. Included in his $125-million renovation project is a gourmet restaurant, FrontRunner at Santa Anita, in the Club House grandstand, overlooking the finish line.

Although Stronach knows no more about running a fancy restaurant than anyone else who formerly washed dishes for a living, which he did in Canada after emigrating from Austria and before making his fortune selling auto parts, he wisely hired someone who does. That is Tom Dillon, owner and chef of the country’s most famous racetrack restaurant, Siro’s at Saratoga. Entrees on today’s menu include Sauteed Scaloppine of Summerfield Farms Veal for $22 and Thai Barbecue Pacific Salmon for $21.

“Best crab cakes I’ve ever eaten,” one connoisseur of the sport said, and, yes, he has been to the restaurants near Pimlico.

But no one expects Hollywood’s best and brightest to return overnight to Santa Anita. There is competition today from too many other restaurants serving Grilled Hawaiian Ono and Basque Style Gazpacho. Too many other sporting events in town even without the NFL. Too many other vices.

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One thing hasn’t changed about Santa Anita in the last 65 years, besides the San Gabriel Mountains in the background. If the beautiful people are no longer regulars, or at least not as regular, the beautiful horses still are.

Seabiscuit ran there in the ‘30s, Citation and Swaps in the ‘50s, Majestic Prince in the ‘60s, Affirmed and Spectacular Bid in ‘70s, John Henry, Winning Colors and Sunday Silence in the ‘80s, Silver Charm, Real Quiet and Charismatic in the ‘90s.

It’s too early to tell whether any of the horses in Sunday’s $200,000 Malibu Stakes, the feature race on opening day of Santa Anita’s winter meeting, will ever be so distinguished.

For sure, no one ever mentioned the winner, Love That Red, and Citation in the same sentence before the race.

Cat Thief, the favorite, had better credentials, having won the Breeders’ Cup Classic this winter in Florida. So did Prime Timber, Straight Man and Desert Hero, mentioned as Kentucky Derby contenders last spring. Painter was making his first start in the United States after going undefeated in Argentina.

Although Love That Red didn’t have their marquee value, he’s a sprinter whose speed seemed right for the seven furlongs. Enough bettors recognized that to make him the second favorite at 4-1. He made a winner of them, finishing in front by a neck over Straight Man and a head over Cat Thief.

The race is likely to be best remembered as the last of Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens’ heralded career--he finished sixth in the seven-horse field on Desert Hero and then suddenly announced his retirement. But Love That Red’s trainer, Leonard Duncan, wouldn’t mind if it’s also remembered someday as the race that started his career moving in the same direction that Bob Baffert’s and Wayne Lukas’ have gone.

“To be successful, to make a lot of money, to win Breeders’ Cup races and Kentucky Derbies, yeah, I’d like that,” said Duncan, 39, who has had his trainer’s license only since 1996.

Until Sunday, though, he wasn’t even that well known among some people who know him. He’s called Mike by his friends, and one of the people who bowls with him at Bowl Square in Arcadia, didn’t know he was the trainer Leonard Duncan until seeing him in the winners’ circle with Love That Red.

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Whether it’s the sport of kings such as Baffert and Lukas or would-be kings such as Leonard “Mike” Duncan, the important thing for Stronach to remember as he continues to refurbish Santa Anita--he’s spent $45 million so far--is that it’s still a sport.

That sometimes gets lost in discussions with him, as during Sunday’s news conference when he spoke mostly about the gourmet restaurant, the big-screen television in the infield and the future of his “entertainment center.”

Commenting on the crowd of 44,018, the largest for an opening day at Santa Anita since 1994, the track’s president, Lonny Powell, mentioned the horses on the card almost as an afterthought. But at least he mentioned them.

They are the sport’s real stars. That was the case in 1934. That will be the case in the March 4 Santa Anita Handicap, in which Cat Thief presumably will find the distance more to his liking, and in the April 8 Santa Anita Derby, in which 3-year-olds such as Lukas’ Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, Anees, and Baffert’s Captain Steve will find out whether they are Kentucky Derby material.

Sports such as baseball, boxing and track and field that ruled in the first half of the century have been hurt because there are so many alternatives now for good athletes. But what are good racehorses going to do besides race?

You don’t have to feed them sauteed veal scaloppine, either. They keep coming back for the oats and hay.