Booming Business: Handle, Attendance Up At Santa Anita’s Spring Meet
Fans enjoying Santa Anita's spring meet
Santa Anita’s Park’s 39-day Spring Meeting, which began on April 24, ended on Sunday with the track showing gains in both on-track attendance and overall pari-mutuel handle. Combined with its 68-day Winter Meet that ran from Dec. 26 through April 19, on-track attendance was up seven percent, overall mutuel handle was up three percent and total handle exceeded $1 billion for the second year in a row.
The Spring Meet, was highlighted by a public appearance from Santa Anita-based Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and top performances in the Grade I, $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita, the Grade I, $300,000 Triple Bend Stakes and two other graded events on June 27.
“First off, we want to sincerely thank our fans, owners, horsemen and our jockeys for a very successful meet,” said Santa Anita Chairman Keith Brackpool. “We’re very proud of the fact our turf course and main track again performed extremely well, which enabled us to consistently field a world- class product.
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“We also want to thank Bob Baffert and his team for sharing America’s newest Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah, so graciously with our fans and media ever since his arrival back here on June 18. We had a tremendous crowd here on Gold Cup Day of more than 21,000 people and many of them were here to see American Pharoah. Having a horse of this magnitude based here at Santa Anita is a great honor and we can’t thank Bob enough for his generosity.”
Santa Anita will re-open for live racing on Sept. 26.
