This is the twentieth of a major series of articles concerning racetracks in the USA. We continue our review of USA racetracks with a further look at the closed harness racing tracks of California.
California –
Santa Anita Park
Santa Anita Park a one mile thoroughbred racetrack in Arcadia, California which in the middle of the twentieth century hosted harness racing. In 2011 The Stronach Group became the current owners. A venue for a number of prestigious races including the Santa Anita Derby, Santa Anita Handicap and the Breeders Cup have been run here on ten occasions since 1984.
The original Santa Anita Park was part of Rancho Santa Anita owned by former San Gabriel Mission Mayor-Domo, Claudio Lopez and named after a family member, “Anita Cota”. The ranch was later acquired by Scotsman rancher Hugo Reid. The property’s most famous owner was successful San Francisco businessman and multimillionaire Elias Jackson “Lucky” Baldwin making his fortune through an investment in the famous Comstock Lode (a lode of silver ore located under the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range in Virginia City, Nevada). Baldwin owned much of Pasadena, Sierra Madre and Arcadia at that time. Overall Baldwin accumulated 63,000 acres of land in Monrovia and Arcadia which included the area that Santa Anita sits on today. An active horseman becoming a successful breeder/owner of thoroughbred racehorses and co-founder of the Los Angeles Turf Club. In 1904 he commenced building the original Santa Anita Park racetrack a few blocks east of its current location of Arcadia Park. It opened in December 1907 with an inaugural one hundred and eight day winter meet.
The California State Legislature passed an anti-racetrack gambling bill known as the Walker-Otis law on 4 February 1909 which resulted in the permanent closing of Baldwin’s racetrack with the racing facility burning to the ground in 1912.
The current Santa Anita Park came into being in 1934 after the passing of pari-mutuel gambling legislation in 1933. San Francisco dentist Dr Charles H. “Doc” Strub and Los Angeles movie mogul Hal Roach and their investor groups joined forces to form the Los Angeles Turf Club opening on its present day track on Christmas Day 1934. The track standing at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains hosted an estimated crowd of 30,777 on opening day. The first formally established and therefore oldest racetrack in Southern California. Its various buildings, a combination of Colonial Revival and art deco known as Streamline Modern, painted primarily in Santa Anita’s signature colours of Persian Green and Chiffon Yellow were designed by architect Gordon Kaufmann.
In 1940 thoroughbred great Seabiscuit won the Santa Anita Handicap in the last start of his legendary career. Racing was suspended at Santa Anita from 27 March to 27 October 1942 to allow the US Government to use it as an assembly centre for Japanese Americans excluded from the West Coast. During this seven month period over 18,000 people lived in horse stables and military style barracks constructed on the site. The track reopened again in 1945.
Beginning in 1946 standardbreds featured at Santa Anita for a couple of decades. Champion horses such as trotter Rodney, fastest trotter of 1948 at Santa Anita, T1:58.0 on 15 May 1948; Grand Circuit FFA Pace winners in 1946 in Adios and Kings Counsel; leading pacers and trotters including Lumber Dream, Shadow Wave, Dale Frost, Thor Hanover, Dotties Pick, Pronto Don, Armbro Flight; former Australasian champion Caduceus on 7 April 1962 set his best North American mile mark of 1:57.4US and leading Kiwi bred trotter Ordeal graced Santa Anita Park during its harness racing heyday.
In the 1960s a major renovation of Santa Anita Park took place which included an expanded grandstand as well as major seating additions. In 1978 after winning the Santa Anita Derby, Affirmed captured the Triple Crown and became Thoroughbred Horse of the Year. In 1982. superstar John Henry won his second Santa Anita Handicap.
In 1984 Santa Anita Park was home to equestrian events at the Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. In 1986 the first ever Breeders Cup World Championships (ten to date, latest 2019) were held at Santa Anita Park. In 1999 the FrontRunner restaurant sitting atop the Grandstand on the fifth floor featuring a 215 ft long bar and a seasonally revolving menu opened. Renovations costing in excess of $15m including a brand new Club House Mezzanine featuring new eateries and state of the art HD television screens, redesign of the iconic Chandelier Room and the new Eddie Logan Suite were undertaken in 2013.
Santa Anita Park track layout and attributes – occupying 330 acres, its historic landmark 1,100 ft (340m) long grandstand can seat 26,000 patrons. The art deco grandstand facade dates back to and is largely the original from the 1930’s. The track infield which can accommodate 50,000+ resembles a park with picnic tables and large trees. There are sixty one barns which house more than two thousand horses and an equine hospital.
Santa Anita has a one-mile (1,609 m) natural dirt main track which rings a turf course measuring 0.9 mile or 1,584 yards (1,448 m). Featuring a unique downhill turf course often used for turf races under one mile (mainly 6½ furlongs) as well as longer races over 1¼m, 1½m and 1m 1,232 yds. This track includes a slight right hand bend out of the gate and a section where horses have to momentarily cross the main dirt track into the straight. This downhill turf course which added a distinctly European flair to racing at Santa Anita was added in 1953 and is one of a few of its type in North America.
Replacing its dirt racing surface to comply with California State directives, a new synthetic surface called Cushion Track, with a mixture of silica sand, synthetic fibres, elastic fibre, granulated rubber and wax coating was laid. Opening for training on 4 September 2007, the first live horse meeting on the cushion track was held on 26 September 2007. Drainage problems with the new surface material meant eleven race dates were lost in 2008 but following intensive maintenance and the addition of a liquid binder, the artificial surface was greatly improved. As a result of continuing issues with the synthetic surface in December 2010 Santa Anita restored the all-natural dirt surface.
In 2019 Santa Anita ended downhill turf sprints following an incident in the San Simeon Stakes in which two horses fell. The hillside turf course continues to be used for distance races. Construction of a new backstretch turf chute was commenced in August 2020 and was in use during the 2020/21 season being used primarily for turf sprints at distances up to 6½ furlongs.
Golden Gate Driving Park
The Golden Gate Driving Park track in San Francisco operated between 1868 and 1885. The half mile oval was adjacent to the Point Lobos Toll Road (today’s Geary Boulevard). From the Cemetery (Presidio) Avenue toll gate to the Cliff House four miles away, Point Lobos Road being virtually unpopulated. When the road was widened from twenty to forty feet and regraded making it level for most of the distance, it provided an ideal area for racing.
1876 map detail of Outer Richmond, showing location of the Half-Mile racetrack driving park
An unnamed visionary scraped out a primitive track on the north side of the road near today’s 25th Avenue where informal and impromptu races were held between owners of teams. In March 1868 James Eoff leased the land where the primitive track had been located laying out a half-mile track with substantial buildings, fences and horse sheds. The track was located roughly between Clement and California Streets and 26th and 22nd Avenues.
Eoff’s facility named Golden Gate Driving Park provided private racing where gentlemen could settle the matter of whose horse was the better. Rather than risking their horse’s welfare and property damage by racing along the public thoroughfare of Point Lobos Road, competitive racing was entered into on Eoff’s track. Opening on 10 October 1868, the day’s highlight was Norfolk, who had been the star attraction and victor in 1864 for the opening day at the Ocean course.
Golden Gate Driving Park prospered unlike the Ocean View and Bay View Courses (another racing course located in the Bayview District) that stood idle and silent. Eoff regularly provided variety in his racing programmes which meant a steady stream of competitors and spectators came to his track.
Formed in April 1870, the Bay District Agricultural Association leased the Golden Gate Driving Park for three years. A number of improvements were initiated at this time, the half mile oval was levelled and widened by ten feet, turns were banked and the track was entirely enclosed with a fence with it proclaimed the best half mile track in the world. A roadway was built to the track’s infield allowing those who desired to watch the races sitting in their carriages. Out buildings including stables were constructed and existing buildings were vastly improved including enlarging the grandstand for ladies.
On 23 July 1870, three thousand people attended Agricultural Park’s inauguration which included an exhibition of stock and five trotting races.
The higher stakes offered by the Agricultural Park compared to Golden Gate Driving Park attracted higher quality horses and clientale. In the following three years owner James Eoff enjoyed the success of his small track. However in April 1873 the directors of the Bay District Association declined to renew their three year lease. The Association was rumoured to be planning to build a new one mile track close by Eoff’s facility and by August 1873 this was confirmed as the Bay District race track (see below).
Eoff announced on 2 August 1873 that he would enlarge his half mile track to one mile having purchased land at either end of his facility to extend the straights while keeping the turns the same distance. Work was expected to commence on the track immediately. Eoff’s plans never eventuated and by 8 August 1873 the track reverted again to Golden Gate Driving Park. It could not however compete with the well-funded and opulent Bay District race track located two miles nearer to the city. In addition traffic on the Point Lobos Toll Road was dramatically reduced when a toll free road to the ocean and Cliff House opened in Golden Gate Park in July 1874.
On Sunday 29 March 1885 the final meeting held at the half mile Golden Gate Driving Park took place. After racing for close to two decades, no fanfare or announcements concerning the park occurred, it simply ceased to exist. The city directory continued to list the track as Agricultural Park, located “on the north side of Point Lobos Avenue between 23rd and 27th Avenues,” through its 1891 edition.
Bay District racetrack
Like most Californian tracks of its era, Bay District race track enjoyed mixed fortunes, beset by rising land values, anti-gambling protesters and bitter rivalries.
In early August 1873, a group of wealthy San Franciscans signed a ten year lease for a sixty acre, one-mile race track between First Avenue, Fulton Street, Fifth Avenue and Point Lobos Road in the Richmond district at the northwest corner of the city. A large amount was spent on creating a lavishly appointed facility which opened as the Bay District Racing Track on 7 September 1874.
Two months after opening on 14 November 1874, its second “Great Race” (first run in 1873 at Golden Gate Driving Park won by Thaddeus) offering an unprecedented stake in America of $25,000 was run and won by Katie Pease. The final “great race” took place on 22 February 1876 before a crowd of 25,000 where the controversial winner was Foster.
Apart from the few notable exceptions listed above, during the earlier years at Bay District race track all the track offered were harness races. Significant achievements included those of Sunol at two who recorded T2:20¼TT on 19 October 1888 which he improved upon a week later on 27 October to T2:18.0TT making him the fastest two year old trotter of 1888. A year later on 9 November 1889 again at Bay District he set the fastest time for a three year old trotter of T2:10½TT.
Before long Bay District was in decline brought about by several factors including spectators frequenting the surrounding hills rather than the track; difficult access meaning it took longer to reach the Richmond district track compared to the new Oakland track which only required a short ferry boat ride from downtown San Francisco; poor financial planning partially brought about by the initial ten year memberships producing up front funding of lavish facilities but no annual subscriptions to provide for necessary and basic maintenance.
The crash of the silver market negated additional members being signed up, the upfront funding ran out with cash flow drying up resulting in no racing at Bay District for three years. The rapid growth of San Francisco created an increased demand for land for residential development with the track finding itself surrounded, resulting in years of confrontation between the track and its encroaching neighbours.
By 1890 the tracks demise appeared certain until its saviour in a young and enterprising thirty year old Thomas Williams purchased Bay District and changed its direction by emphasizing thoroughbred racing at distances of a half mile and one mile. This signalled the end of harness racing at Bay District and for six years the track hosted thoroughbreds only.
On 18 June 1891 the Board of Supervisors considered a petition from the Point Lobos Improvement Society demanding the removal of the fence around the track and to fill in the ground. In October 1892 the Richmond Improvement Club appeared before the Board of Supervisors to protest the existence of the race course and demand the opening of the streets which had been closed to allow the track’s operation.
No action was taken against the track and, for the first time in San Francisco racing history in 1893, horsemen from the east brought their racing stables to San Francisco for the winter season. An extended season of continuous thoroughbred racing five days a week month after month commenced where previously racing had only been held for a week or two every few months. This was successful except that Richmond District residents again objected to the continuing presence of the track renewing their efforts to have the track closed and closed streets opened arguing that its acreage should be opened up for housing. In particular their objections concerned the bars on Fulton Street and 5th Avenue facing the track, commonly referred to as Beer Town.
On 30 July 1895 the San Francisco Call proclaimed “The Old Track Doomed” with the scheduled opening of another rival track at Ingleside by Williams’s one-time friend Ed Corrigan. A Chicago businessman and owner of Hawthorne Race Course in Illinois, Corrigan previously patronised Bay District. Following a disagreement with Williams, Corrigan retaliated by building his own racecourse, Ingleside Race Track. Corrigan and others had purchased one hundred and ten acres of land in the Ingleside District for their track from Adolph Sutro for $165,000. Williams was unable to continue operating Bay District race track which held its last meeting on 27 May 1896. Two years later, residential streets were being positioned across its former infield.
Next ArtIcle : Final article on closed Californian tracks
Peter Craig
8 February 2023
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
