Santa Anita Race Track

Santa Anita race track is a prominent Southern California horse racing facility known officially as Santa Anita Park, but is often informally referred to as just “Santa Anita”.

The track is located in Arcadia, California, and is situated at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, a mountain range that divides the lands of the Mojave Desert with those of the Greater Los Angeles Area.

Santa Anita Race Track

The Santa Anita meet runs from December 26 through mid to late April, and is comprised of approximately 80 to 85 racing dates.

The track features many well known horse races such as the Santa Anita Derby, its chief preparatory race for the Kentucky Derby, in which victory virtually guarantees a place in the starting gate for the Kentucky Derby. In addition it showcases the Santa Anita Handicap (also known as the “Big Cap”) which has been won by many prominent horses such as Seabiscuit, Spectacular Bid, and John Henry.

Santa Anita was opened on Christmas day in 1934 and is the oldest race track in Southern California. It has hosted the last two Breeder’s Cup events, in 2008 and in 2009, its fourth and fifth occasions of having been accorded the privilege.

Trevor Denman, a native of South Africa, has been a fixture at Santa Anita for over 25 years, having taken up duties as track announcer here in 1983.

Santa Anita Racetrack

The main track at Santa Anita is a one-mile oval and is laid over with a synthetic material called Pro-Ride, having replaced the dirt surface it had employed since its inception so as to comply with new California state regulations. Research suggested that synthetic surfaces would be safer for the horses and reduce the number of injuries, but the jury is still out whether that has actually been the case.

The facility also features a downhill turf course, whose attributes are absolutely unique to the world. A race over this “about 6 ½ furlongs" distance requires the horses to make a winding S-shaped descent downhill on the grass for the first two-thirds of the race, cross over a dirt strip, and then back over to a flat grass surface which is the same stretch run used for the other turf races at Santa Anita race track. It is known for being a “horse for the course” type surface, as some horses that try the course take to it particularly well, while others seem to evince considerable difficulty in handling its peculiar configuration.