Oak Tree Welcomes a New Era

Some of the deposed old guard--former general manager Cliff Goodrich, ex-vice president for racing Tom Robbins--were on hand as the Oak Tree Racing Assn. opened the new Santa Anita on Wednesday.

In 100-degree heat, they may have looked around and wondered if they were in the right place. The upper box-seat area has a new, more compact look, there’s a large infield TV board that has remarkable clarity and the grandstand apron has been completely redone.

But no mass reconstruction project is perfect. The creaky old press-box elevator broke down early in the day, something that occasionally happened even in the days before Frank Stronach. At the walking ring, fans eyeballing the horses turned around to find that the huge vertical odds board atop the stands was no longer there.

“I’ve been coming here for 45 years,” one horseplayer said. “It’s just something that you expect to see. The way it is now, there’s no place in the area to check the odds of the horses.”

Stronach, who bought Santa Anita last December for $126 million, so far has spent $20 million on improvements and expects to spring for much more.

“The way the construction work went, we had to take that odds board down,” he said. “We’ll be putting it back up.”

Lines at the betting windows moved quickly, perhaps because the parimutuel department was overstaffed. The on-track crowd totaled 10,119, about 4,500 less than the Oak Tree opener a year ago.

Stronach didn’t seem to mind the attendance drop.

“I walked through the crowd, and many people came up to shake my hand and say they were pleased,” he said. “We’ve given all the changes a lot of thought, and we’re confident they will work. They’re all down on paper and they make sense. I think the people who come will see that we are committed. And what we’re committed to is to make Santa Anita the No. 1 race place in the world.”

The longshot players had a chance throughout the card, and after horses at 19-1 and 39-1 won earlier races, Hula Queen, always effective in sprints on Santa Anita’s downhill turf course, won the $112,900 Sen. Ken Maddy Handicap and paid $31.60. Maddy is battling cancer and was in the hospital Tuesday, but he was in the winner’s circle for the post-race presentation.

Luis Seglin, who claimed Hula Queen for $25,000 from trainer Marcelo Polanco at Santa Anita about two years ago, scored his first training stakes win in the United States. The Argentine-born Seglin, 53, began his U.S. training career in New York and moved to California three years ago.

Hula Queen, one of nine horses at Seglin’s barn, was ridden by Alex Solis.

Desert Lady, the 8-5 favorite who had won three times downhill at Santa Anita, finished second. The time for the winner was 1:13.

Horse Racing Notes

Corey Nakatani was allowed to ride only one race--finishing seventh with Royal Shyness in the stake--as he began serving a suspension that the stewards doled out at the end of the Del Mar meet. In California, jockeys can ride in designated races while on suspension. . . . Eddie Delahoussaye, who broke his left shoulder in a spill at Del Mar on July 30, will return Saturday. One of his mounts will be Tranquility Lake in the Yellow Ribbon Stakes.