A Strong Reopening for Santa Anita

Santa Anita was up and running Friday, the first time racing had been held at the Southern California racetrack since Mar. 22. All that was missing were fans in the stands. The card was strong, the handle was robust and it appeared that the many strict protocols put in place by Santa Anita didn't affect the racing.

“We're, overall, really happy with how things went,” said Aidan Butler, who heads the California racing operation for The Stronach Group. “It is so good to be back racing. From a logistics standpoint, everything went really well. Everyone was in really good spirits. The mood was as cheerful as I've ever seen it for a day of racing. Everyone was super happy. It's so nice to get the place back up and running.”

The handle was $11,207,076 for nine races–a huge increase over the same days in 2019, when Santa Anita handled $6,974,738 for eight races.

“The handle was great,” Butler said. “This was a big day for us. For a regular Friday, that's a helluva lot of handle.”

The first race of the day and the first held at Santa Anita since March  was won by the Peter Miller-trained She's So Special (Hard Spun). Ridden by Flavien Prat, she won the 5 1/2-furlong turf race by 1 1/2 lengths.

“It's been a while,” Miller said. “It felt great and it's really good to be back racing. Certainly, it's always good to win a race especially after we haven't raced here for six, seven weeks. I definitely had more jitters than usual.”

“It's great to finally be back,” said Prat. “It's been a rough time, but I'm glad we are back in business.”

Santa Anita presented a strong card for its return. Including three also-eligibles, 97 horses were entered for the nine races. Six of the nine races had at least 10 starters.

Intent on keeping everyone involved with the racing safe, Santa Anita had several new protocols in place for the return of racing. Everyone involved in the racing was wearing masks, including the jockeys. Between races, jockeys were sequestered in a “restricted zone,” which, for the riders, was a recreational vehicle parked behind the jockey's room. Restricted zones were also used for valets and other essential track personnel and no one was admitted to the area without first testing negative for the coronavirus.

The jockeys must remain on the premises during the three-day period, Friday through Sunday, in which there is live racing. Friday morning Aaron Gryder moved into his trailer, where he will be spending a lot of time with Mike Smith.

“I've got Mike Smith as a roommate,” Gryder said. “Not the first time he's been my roommate–we've lived together many times. I just didn't know it would be on the track at Santa Anita. I just feel like a little kid back here. It's just fun. I'm sure the nights will be fun, too. Nothing wild, but when we have dinner, a big group of guys together, there's always some good stories and laughs. You know there's a lot of stories on the racetrack.”

Santa Anita also changed up the procedures for how horses were saddled prior to the races. Rather than being prepared in the paddock, they were saddled in the receiving barn before being led to the walking ring. After the races the horses were returned to the walking ring to be unsaddled. 

Flying Business (Gervinho) won the second race for trainer Matt Chew, who said he was pleasantly surprised by how well the day went considering all the adjustments that had to be made.

“Our management team of Aidan Butler, Amy Zimmerman, Nate Newby and the racing office, they did an amazing job,” he said. “Number one was to get us open and then to set protocols that were acceptable to the state. Then they set up a routine that was very efficient. There were a lot of moving parts, so there were a lot of us that were skeptical as to whether or not they could pull this off. It seemed too complicated. But they were very well organized. There were some things with the first race that weren't perfect, but people worked together, made decisions on the fly and sorted things out. I thought it would take two or three days to get everything right, but they were dialed in on day one.”

One of the highlights of the card was the third race, which featured the comeback of the Bob Baffert-trained Tale of the Union (Union Rags), who was making his first start since Aug. 23, 2018, in which he posted an eight-length win. Sent off at 3-5, Tale of the Union finished seventh as 20-1 shot Oil Can Knight (Can the Man) nosed out 24-1 shot Kneedeepinsnow (Flat Out).

Racing will continue at Santa Anita Saturday with a 10-race card topped by two stakes for California-breds, the $150,000 Evening Jewel S. and the $150,000 Echo Eddie S.

“Things went smoothly and I think they will be even better tomorrow and better still on Sunday,” Butler said.