Oak Tree’s Golden Breeders’ Cup Memories

The Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita Park has hosted some of Breeders' Cup's biggest moments. (Photo courtesy of Cynthia Holt)
Back in the days before cell phones and Facebook, Santa Anita Park lay dormant from mid-April until its traditional opening day of Dec. 26. Since the late 1930s, the Southern California racing calendar had rotated between Santa Anita, Hollywood Park, Del Mar, and the Pomona Fair in September. It was the three-month gap between Pomona and Santa Anita which put a glint in the eye of Clement L. Hirsch, despite the fact that Del Mar had recently attempted to host a fall meeting, with disappointing results.
Hirsch was a man who cast a long shadow in an era renowned for self-made men. He began his career peddling dog food from door to door during the Depression, and defied the odds by becoming a highly successful businessman and a Thoroughbred owner/breeder. In 1968, Hirsch and two other well-respected names in California racing, Louis R. Rowan and Dr. Jack Robbins, presented Santa Anita president Robert P. Strub and general manager Fred Ryan with a proposal. They envisioned an autumn meeting at Santa Anita managed by an uncompensated board of directors who knew racing from the frontside to the backside. Hirsch adopted a slogan which would define the meeting’s purpose: “Horsemen helping horsemen,” with all profits largely benefiting racing-related charities and foundations.
Hirsch and his cohorts had to lobby their case vigorously before a less than enthusiastic Racing Board and Santa Anita management, but their persistence held sway. Finally, a 20-day meeting christened “Oak Tree at Santa Anita” was ready to roll, with opening day set for Friday, Oct. 3, 1969. Things got off to a rocky start. A dispute with the pari-mutuel clerks delayed the proceedings, during which time doubts were raised by chilly-footed backers as to whether the new meeting should be axed. Luckily, Oak Tree found a champion in chairman of the California Horse Racing Board Bob Fluor, and on Tuesday, Oct. 7, the admission gates clattered a happy tune as 16,733 excited racegoers witnessed the first Autumn Days Stakes, won by Bill Shoemaker aboard Tell for trainer Charlie Whittingham.
With the advent of the Breeders’ Cup in 1984, Oak Tree rose to national prominence as one of the primary racetracks for Breeders’ Cup prep races. The front end of the meeting was loaded with Grade 1 events in every category, which attracted some of racing’s most popular headliners and resulted in stellar performances in the Breeders’ Cup. Among those horses who prepped at Oak Tree were Ferdinand, Alphabet Soup, Pleasantly Perfect, Tiznow and Zenyatta. Oak Tree hosted the Breeders’ Cup in 1986, 1993, 2003, 2008, and 2009. The following are just a few of the magnificent moments which live in the memories of those who were fortunate enough to be present on one of those splendid autumn days.
Lady’s Secret, a spectacular gray daughter of the great Secretariat, won 10 of 15 starts in 1986, all of which were in graded stakes races, and eight of which were Grade 1. She ran against the boys four times, becoming the first female to win the Whitney Handicap since Gallorette in 1948. In the 1986 Breeders’ Cup, she thrilled the crowd of 69,155 with her wire-to-wire triumph in the Distaff under Pat Day for trainer D. Wayne Lukas. The diminutive “Iron Lady” did not share the imposing physical presence of her sire, but she did inherit his huge heart. She was the first Breeders’ Cup winner to be awarded Horse of the Year, and she also won champion older female in 1986. 
LADY’S SECRET WINS THE 1986 DISTAFF

The Breeders’ Cup celebrated its 10-year anniversary in 1993 and returned to Oak Tree for a day that will be remembered forever by those who were fortunate enough to hold a winning ticket in the Classic. In a monumental upset, Arcangues, a 133-to-1 French import ridden by Jerry Bailey and trained by Andres Fabre, rocketed by favorite Bertrando to score the biggest payoff in Breeders' Cup history - a whopping $269.60 for a $2 wager! It was Arcangues’ debut on the dirt, and he was the first horse that had been exclusively campaigned abroad to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Following the race, Jerry Bailey revealed that he had not understood a word of instruction which Arcangues’ French connections had spoken to him in the paddock.
ARCANGUES LIGHTS UP THE TOTE BOARD IN THE 1993 CLASSIC 

There were more surprises in store in 2003 when the Breeders’ Cup was held in the midst of a torrid heat wave, with wildfires in the hills visible from the grandstand and the temperature topping 99 degrees. In a nail-biter of a finish in the Turf, trainer Aiden O’Brien’s defending champion High Chaparral under Mick Kinane and Richard Mandella’s Johar with Alex Solis hit the wire together, which necessitated a 12-minute review by the stewards. The two horses could not be separated, and the Breeders’ Cup added the first and only dead-heat (tie) for a win to its record books.
JOHAR (OUTSIDE) AND HIGH CHAPPARAL DEAD-HEAT IN THE 2003 TURF

Photo by HorsePhotos.com
Richard Mandella experienced the kind of monster day of which trainers dream, racking up three additional wins with Pleasantly Perfect in the Classic, Action This Day in the Juvenile, and Halfbridled in the Juvenile Fillies under jockey Julie Krone, who became the first female rider to win a Breeders’ Cup race. Mandella’s record of four Breeders’ Cup wins by a trainer in one day still stands.
2003 TURF

The Breeders’ Cup marked its 25th anniversary in 2008, and for the first time, it was held on a synthetic surface, which Santa Anita had been required to install by a state mandate. The races would be conducted over two days, with new additions in the line-up of the Turf Sprint, the Juvenile Fillies Turf, and the Marathon. However, these innovations paled in comparison to something magical which was waiting in the wings.
A huge dark bay filly with a massive stride and a heart-stopping habit of last-minute rallies was beginning to make her mark on the national scene. Ridden by Mike Smith and trained by John Shirreffs, the undefeated Zenyatta’s thrilling late run in the Ladies’ Classic (now Distaff) against such accomplished fillies as Ginger Punch, Cocoa Beach and Hystericalady for her ninth straight victory secured her place in the public’s heart.
ZENYATTA POWERS TO VICTORY IN THE 2008 LADIES’ CLASSIC

Photo by Eclipse Sportswire
Another filly who distinguished herself during the silver anniversary was the amazing 3-year-old Goldikova, making her first appearance in the Mile, in which she defeated defending champion Kip Deville under Olivier Peslier for trainer Freddy Head. Goldikova would go on to win two more Breeders’ Cup Miles, becoming the only horse in history to win three Breeders’ Cup races.
2008 LADIES' CLASSIC

 GOLDIKOVA GLITTERS IN THE 2008 MILE

The Breeders’ Cup returned to Oak Tree in 2009 for the final time, made all the more bittersweet by the running of what many consider to be the greatest race in its 31-year history. In a training tour de force, John Shirreffs captured both the Ladies’ Classic with Life is Sweet in a thrilling come-from-behind victory, and the Classic in an extraordinary performance by the still undefeated Zenyatta, in which she became the first and only female to take the Breeders’ Cup’s biggest prize.
ZENYATTA IS MOBBED BY FANS AND THE PRESS FOLLOWING THE 2009 CLASSIC

Photo by Eclipse Sportswire
Facing a wall of horses as she motored out of the final turn, Zenyatta moved with dance-like dexterity from the inside to the outside of the field, then took aim on her opponents. With announcer Trevor Denman’s iconic call of “This … is … un … be … lievable!” echoing across the foothills, punctuated by the screams of 58,845 frenzied fans, Zenyatta inhaled her foes as if breathing air from another planet. Santa Anita rocked to the rafters as a tidal wave of emotion flooded the grandstand and engulfed racing’s newly crowned queen. In a burst of euphoria, jockey Mike Smith threw handfuls of Zenyatta’s victory flowers into the air, John Shirreffs pitched his trademark baseball cap into an ocean of upraised arms, and time stood still—but only for a moment.
2009 CLASSIC

LIFE IS SWEET AND A JUBILANT GARRETT GOMEZ WIN THE 2009 LADIES’ CLASSIC

Time had run out on Oak Tree’s tenure at Santa Anita.  In 2010, it was announced that Santa Anita would not be renewing Oak Tree’s lease, and the 41-year partnership which had fostered some of racing’s most compelling stories came to an end. Oak Tree conducted a one-season stand at Hollywood Park in 2010, then went in search of a permanent home. It found it in 2014 at the Alameda County Fair at Pleasanton in Northern California, where it continues to add to the more than 30 million dollars which it has raised over the years for some of racing’s most worthy causes, and more golden memories to its illustrious history.