Despite Breeders’ Cup, Oak Tree Meet Struggles

Although the Breeders’ Cup, run at Santa Anita on Oct. 25, was hailed as an aesthetic and financial success, the Oak Tree Racing Assn.’s meet at the Arcadia track is staggering toward the finish line.

Oak Tree, the nonprofit group that leases Santa Anita for an annual fall meet, announced last week that purses were being cut 10%. Sunday’s $75,000 Hidden Light Stakes was canceled because of a lack of nominations, and the $200,000 Las Palmas Handicap, a fixture since Oak Tree ran its first meet in 1969, will not be run next Sunday, which is closing day for the 32-day season.

A track’s purse structure is tied to the betting totals. There was a record $120.8 million bet on the 12-race Breeders’ Cup card, including $17.1 million on-track, but because of a contractual agreement between the host track and the Breeders’ Cup, that money does not bolster purses.

“In effect, the Breeders’ Cup ‘takes over’ your track on Breeders’ Cup day,” said Corey Johnsen, president of Lone Star Park, the Texas track that will host the races for the first time next year. “What you hope for is a dramatic increase of business the day before the Breeders’ Cup and the day after.”

The day before this year’s Breeders’ Cup, for a card that included two stakes races, there was a crowd of 11,000, a gain of 5,000 from the previous Friday. Overall betting also increased substantially, from $7.3 million to $10.4 million. But the day after the Breeders’ Cup, a Sunday when no stakes were offered, attendance at Santa Anita was 8,411, a couple of hundred less than the previous week, and total betting was $8.8 million, $400,000 more than Oct. 19.

Attendance on Breeders’ Cup day, while passing the 51,000 mark, was still about 4,000 less than what Oak Tree officials projected. Weekday crowds last week were under 4,000 on two of the three days.

Sherwood Chillingworth, executive vice president of Oak Tree, had expected a solid meet. Del Mar and Fairplex Park, which ran meets just before Oak Tree, posted significant business gains, and Oak Tree boosted its marketing budget $500,000 in anticipation of the Breeders’ Cup meet.

But unseasonably hot weather may have cut into attendance, and then the meet was compromised by the transit strike and the wildfires that dropped soot and ash on race-goers for several days.

“We were forced to deal with things that were a lot more important in peoples’ lives than horse racing,” Chillingworth said.

California Cup day, which two years ago accounted for a crowd of 37,000 and betting just short of $20 million, will give Oak Tree a chance to partly recoup on Saturday. Ten stakes for California-breds will be run, and the purses of $1.325 million are not affected by the meet’s business downturns.

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Pat Valenzuela, the leading rider at Oak Tree with 34 wins to Tyler Baze’s 29, rides Saturday, but otherwise will miss the remaining four days of the meet because of suspensions. Valenzuela also will miss the first two days of the Hollywood Park meet (Nov. 11 and 13) because of suspensions, and has yet to serve eight days in suspensions that were handed out by Del Mar stewards.

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