Belmont, Santa Anita Are Future Breeders’ Cup Sites

Belmont Park and Santa Anita are getting another chance.

Belmont Park, where the Breeders’ Cup attendance dropped below 40,000 for the first--and only--time five years ago, has been named host for next year’s event. In making the announcement Friday, D.G. Van Clief, president of the Breeders’ Cup, said that Santa Anita is the “first choice” to have the event in 2002.

The Oak Tree Racing Assn., which runs the fall meeting at Santa Anita, was in line to be the host for this year’s Breeders’ Cup, but the races were shifted to Churchill Downs, on Nov. 4, because of ongoing, extensive plant remodeling at Santa Anita.

A Breeders’ Cup spokesman said that while it appears that the 2002 races are locked in for Santa Anita, no immediate announcement is planned. Breeders’ Cup officials will want to monitor the widespread improvements at Santa Anita before they sign a contract with Oak Tree, which is a tenant of Frank Stronach--the international auto-parts magnate who bought Santa Anita in December 1998.

Estimates on the Stronach improvement program at Santa Anita have reached $300 million--more than double what he paid for the track--and while it is unlikely that he will gain local approvals for some of the plans by 2002, there is still the possibility that additional construction could get in Oak Tree’s way to hold the Breeders’ Cup.

“We knew we were in line for 2002 after we lost the Breeders’ Cup this year,” said Sherwood Chillingworth, executive vice president of the Oak Tree group. “Now we just hope we can get over the obstacles and actually have the races at Santa Anita.”

Should the races come to Santa Anita in 2002, Southern California will be a Breeders’ Cup host for the sixth time. Hollywood Park hosted the inaugural running in 1984 as well as those in 1987 and 1997, and the event was run at Santa Anita in 1986 and 1993.

The best locales for large Breeders’ Cup crowds have been in California and at Churchill Downs, where a record 80,456 showed up in 1998. But in 1995, Breeders’ Cup officials soured on New York as a host when only 37,246 showed up as Cigar blew away the field in the $3-million Classic, the richest race of the day.

The Breeders’ Cup had drawn 51,236 at Belmont five years before.

Belmont Park, however, has drawn well in the last four years of the Triple Crown. There were built-in draws from 1997 through 1999, when Silver Charm, Real Quiet and Charismatic could have swept the elusive Triple Crown with wins in the Belmont Stakes. But this year, with no Triple Crown on the line and Fusaichi Pegasus and Red Bullet--the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winners--not running, the Belmont still drew 67,810, only 3,000 less than 1997, when Touch Gold defeated Silver Charm.

Horse Racing Notes

Victor Espinoza, who suffered bruises when one of his mounts broke down at Hollywood Park on Thursday, was back riding Friday night. Espinoza, the leading rider at the meet before Friday night, rides Single Empire, the 121-pound high weight, in today’s $200,000 Golden Gate Handicap before returning to Hollywood Park Sunday, when he will ride Montemiro, the Inglewood Handicap winner, in the $350,000 Shoemaker Breeders’ Cup Mile.