Aside from a lack of spectators, it's all good for opening of Santa Anita meet

Santa Anita begins its winter-spring meeting on Saturday with an addition to the turf course, a slight increase in overnight purses, and an outstanding 11-race program that includes five graded races.

What is missing from opening day, and in all likelihood for the duration of the meeting, are paying customers.

:: Want to get your Past Performances for free? Click to learn more.

Last year, there were 35,085 in attendance on opening day, which was delayed 48 hours to Dec. 28 because of excessive rain. This year, there is likely to be fewer than 200 people on site, consisting largely of racing officials, track employees, and jockeys and trainers.

“It would have been a monster day,” said new general manager Nate Newby, a longtime executive at Santa Anita.

“Given everything else going on through the country, we’re happy to just be running.”

With the pandemic filling California hospitals at alarming levels this month, it is unlikely county health officials will allow the track to host paying customers in the near future.

Opening day will have its usual emphasis on top-class races, with six stakes. First post time is 11 a.m. Pacific. That much has stayed the same.

The track has changed its turf program, adding a backstretch turf chute that will allow for sprints at distances of 6 and 6 1/2 furlongs. The new chute is adjacent to the seven-furlong chute for the dirt track, and has a brief run before the horses cross the main track and join the main turf oval approximately 5 1/2 furlongs from the finish.

The hillside turf course will be used only for the start of turf races from 1 1/4 miles to about 1 3/4 miles.

Newby, formerly a marketing executive and assistant general manager, is joined on a revised list of executives by new racing secretary Chris Merz, a longtime racing official who recently took over the position from Steve Lym, who remains with the track’s parent company, The Stronach Group.

:: Start earning weekly cashback on your wagering today. Click to learn more.

Newby replaces acting general manager Aidan Butler, who remains with the track’s parent company.

Newby said horses based at Golden Gate Fields in Northern California are expected to run here during the initial weeks of the meeting. Golden Gate Fields, also owned by The Stronach Group, has been closed since mid-November because of a coronavirus outbreak in the stable area. The track has not announced when racing will resume.

Santa Anita has had a disrupted schedule on three occasions in the last two years. The winter of 2019 was plagued by a series of equine fatalities in racing or training that led to a three-week cessation of racing in March of that year for an inspection and renovation of the main track. Earlier this year, racing was halted by the Los Angeles County Board of Public Health from March 27 to May 15 at the start of the pandemic, leading to the cancellation of 21 days of racing.

In September, the start of the track’s autumn meeting was delayed by a week because of lingering effects of a massive wildfire in the mountains near the track.

“We’re looking forward to putting on a good, smooth meeting,” Newby said.

The meeting runs through June 20, with racing largely on a Friday-through-Sunday basis. There is racing on Saturday and Sunday this week, followed by a four-day week from Dec. 31 through Jan. 3.