Fans can return to Santa Anita beginning Friday, officials say

ARCADIA, Calif. - Fans will return to Santa Anita beginning Friday for the first time in more than a year, with the track mandating customers purchase admission tickets in advance and follow familiar social distancing protocols.

Tickets are available for $10 or $20 in groups of two, four or six, and include mandatory seating available in sections such as the grandstand, trackside picnic tables, or the turf terrace restaurant in the clubhouse.

Fans are required to purchase seats in advance through the track’s website at santaanita.com/open. Ticket sales begin at 10 a.m. on Monday.

Audiences of up to 9,000 people will be allowed under the Los Angeles County’s guidelines for outdoor sports, track officials said. The limited attendance is likely to lead to a sell-out for Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby program, which annually draws one of the larger ontrack crowds of the year.

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Track general manager Nate Newby emphasized that customers need to purchase tickets in advance of arriving at the track. Ticket prices include admission, seats, parking and a track program.

“We’re trying to get the word out to our core fans,” Newby said. “It will be a change for customers.”

Customers will be required to print tickets, or show a scanned version on a mobile phone, to gain admission.

Seats will be socially distanced and face masks are required. Over the weekend, several sections of the grandstand had seats that were zip-tied in a closed position to aid in social distancing guidelines.

Cashless food and beverage services will be available via a mobile phone ordering system. Betting will be available with mutuel tellers, but an emphasis will be placed on the use of voucher machines that will be cleaned frequently, Newby said.

Santa Anita has not had a general audience since March 8, 2020. The track operated for five days of racing later that month with only essential track employees in attendance before the sport was deemed a non-essential business in the early days of the pandemic and halted by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Racing did not resume until mid-May of last year.

Since late September, with the start of the autumn meeting, Santa Anita has been allowed to host a small number of owners who have horses participating on that day.

Other sports in California will be allowed to have limited crowds beginning Thursday, notably Major League Baseball.

The current Santa Anita season continues through June 20.