Attendance, handle decline at fall meet

ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita ended its 19-day autumn meeting with declines in average all-sources and ontrack handle and an increase in attendance, according to a track official.

All-sources average handle was down 4 percent to $8,213,323, while ontrack handle was down 7 percent. Average attendance increased by 14 percent to 6,214. The track did not publish extensive business data.

The attendance figures were boosted to some extent by a Latin music concert Sunday that contributed to a crowd of 12,362 compared with 5,555 on the corresponding Sunday in 2014.

The meeting was remarkably different from autumn meetings held in the last three years. This year, the season began Saturday, Sept. 26, with a program that included five Grade 1 stakes, and ended on the last full weekend of October. The 2012 through 2014 meetings began on a Friday in late September, included the Breeders’ Cup championship days, and ended on the first weekend of November. The 2014 meeting consisted of 23 racing days.

Director of marketing Nate Newby said the track compared the racing days of this year’s meeting with the corresponding racing days of the 2014 meeting to achieve average business figures. According to figures released to the public on a daily basis, the track’s highest attendance at the meet was 13,537 on Sept. 26. The all-sources handle that day was $13.6 million, the highest of the season.

This year’s meeting was the second-shortest autumn meeting in track history – the 1973 Oak Tree meeting spanned 18 racing days.

The track’s 2016 autumn meeting will more closely resemble the 2012 through 2014 meetings, spanning approximately 25 days from Friday, Sept. 30, through Sunday, Nov. 6. The Breeders’ Cup races will be run at Santa Anita on Nov. 4-5.

This fall, jockey Rafael Bejarano led all riders with 25 wins, 10 more than Mario Gutierrez. Bejarano swept the riding titles at the three meetings at Santa Anita this year, including the winter-spring and spring-summer meetings. He also was the leading rider at the Del Mar summer meeting.

The trainers’ title was decided on Sunday’s final race. Doug O’Neill won three races Sunday, including the ninth race with Cass in Stone, to finish with 12 wins, one more than Jerry Hollendorfer, who began Sunday with a two-race lead but had only one starter, who was unplaced.

Paul and Zillah Reddam, O’Neill’s leading clients, won four races at the meet, finishing in a tie for leading owner with David and Holly Wilson.

After race meetings at Del Mar in November and Los Alamitos in December, Santa Anita will open its winter-spring meeting on Saturday, Dec. 26.