On Santa Anita’s big day, no horse injuries but fewer fans in stands
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ARCADIA — The biggest races of the Santa Anita Park season came off without a problem Saturday, but not without protest from animal-welfare activists, and there a hint that controversy over 23 horse deaths in three months at the historic track kept some fans home.
The Santa Anita Derby was won by Roadster and jockey Mike Smith, the Santa Anita Handicap was won by Gift Box and rider Joel Rosario, and none of the 92 horses competing on the 11-race card suffered a visible injury.
But the announced crowd of 30,713 was the third smallest in the past 75 runnings of the Santa Anita Derby, about 5,000 below the recent average.
That didn’t stop Bob Baffert, the Hall of Fame trainer who won the Santa Anita Derby for a record ninth time, from praising the fans who showed up “despite everything they’ve been reading.”
“To me, that’s what made this a great day,” said Baffert, who trained Santa Anita Derby winner Roadster and runner-up Game Winner, both contenders to win the Kentucky Derby on May 4.
There were reminders all day that, for Santa Anita, this wasn’t just another afternoon of high-class racing under sunny skies at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains.
Another fatal breakdown, on such a widely watched day, could have brought more calls for the track to halt competition at least until the state and county complete investigations of the spate of injuries in races and workouts during Southern California’s unusually wet and cold winter.
The crowd gasped when, early in the day’s fifth race, the Royale Heroine Stakes, Smith pulled Ms Bad Behavior out of the pack of seven and eased her to a stop in the clubhouse turn. Smith jumped off, and attendants quickly checked the 4-year-old filly for injury. But she appeared not to be hurt.
“I just didn’t like the way she was moving,” Smith said. “I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
Later, speaking with reporters in the winner’s circle after the Santa Anita Derby, Baffert showed Santa Anita’s public-relations nightmare was on his mind by bringing it up without being asked.
“The fans, they didn’t let us down,” Baffert said, looking up at the grandstand. “It was so comforting to see all the fans here (to) get behind us.”
Fans came despite the best efforts of about 60 protesters who flanked Santa Anita’s main entrance on Huntington Drive before the first race, waving signs (one said “Horse Racing — Cruelty You Can Bet On!”), chanting rhymes and shouting “Shame on you!” at drivers.
“I don’t think people are going to want to come to a track where horses are dying like they are now,” said Wayne Johnson, a Santa Monica resident who helped to organize the demonstration. “People will look back at Santa Anita in 2019 as the tipping point.”
Parking his car after driving past the protesters, racing fan Terry Marcoline, 77, of Palm Springs said he attends major races three or four times a year.
“Nobody wants to see a horse go down,” Marcoline said. “So I understand and I agree (with protesters), but not to that extent.”
Another unusual sight: Judie Mancuso, an advocate of banning horse racing, attended her first horse races. Mancuso joined Kathy Guillermo, senior vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who was at the track for scheduled news-media interviews.
“My knees are knocking,” Mancuso, a Laguna Beach resident who lobbies for animal-protection laws as founding president of Social Compassion in Legislation, said as horses entered the starting gate (which she called “the cage thing”) for the seventh race,
“Please don’t fall,” Mancuso, standing near the rail, far from the finish line, said as the 12 horses ran past her early in the race.
Mancuso clutched her chest when the race was over and laughed at her anxiety, calling it “a relief” to see it completed without mishap.
“It’s got to be that way all the time for this sport to survive,” Mancuso said.
Santa Anita has announced changes in medication and whipping rules designed to soothe public opinion if not actually address possible causes of the higher than normal rate of mortal injuries.
The California Horse Racing Board is scheduled to meet Friday, April 12, to discuss the possibility of moving races from Santa Anita to another track temporarily.
Executives of The Stronach Group, which operates Santa Anita, declined to comment on the day’s events and welcome lack of more bad news.