Solid Handle, Large Crowd Greet Return of Santa Anita

With a jockeys' room full of top talent and world-class racing the order of the day, Santa Anita Park's Classic Meet opener Dec. 26 proved a rousing success. An on-track crowd of 37,143 contributed to all-sources handle of $18.3 million, which rates as the best handle ever among a total of 17 opening dates conducted on a Tuesday.

"From a business standpoint, opening on a Tuesday is always a challenge because so many people are back to work," said Santa Anita senior vice president and general manager Nate Newby. "We want to sincerely thank our fans for their tremendous support and our horsemen, trainers, jockeys, and owners for putting on a magnificent show today.

"From start to finish, we had great, safe racing, on both turf and dirt. We had tight finishes and great competition. The Malibu was one of three grade 1 stakes and anybody who saw it had to be impressed by the performances of both Speed Boat Beach  and Hejazi . Speed Boat Beach got seven furlongs in 1:21.70, which was less than two-fifths of a second off what Flightline   did last year."

Both Speed Boat Beach and Hejazi are trained by Bob Baffert, who picked up his sixth win in the Malibu, tying fellow Hall of Famer Richard Mandella.

A 14-time Santa Anita Winter Meet leading rider and a winner of six runnings of the Malibu, Santa Anita's all-time leading rider Laffit Pincay Jr. was on hand to present the Malibu trophy.

Trainer Mark Glatt saddled three winners on the day, including Watsonville  in the grade 2 Mathis Mile. Flavien Prat, back at Santa Anita to ride full time this winter, registered a hat trick as well, with his big win coming aboard Speed Boat Beach. 

Phil D'Amato got off to great start, saddling a pair of stakes winners, Easter  in the San Gabriel (G2) on turf and Newgrange  in the San Antonio (G2) on the main track.

Italian-born Antonio Fresu had a stakes double, taking the San Gabriel on D'Amato's Easter and the Mathis Mile aboard Glatt's Watsonville. Fellow Italian Umberto Rispoli took the day's first race aboard the Dan Blacker-trained Bigofromfresno  and he came back to take the American Oaks (G1) aboard trainer Leonard Powell's Anisette .

Live racing resumes at Santa Anita Friday and will continue through Monday, Jan. 1, with first post time each day at noon.