Santa Anita hoping to allow fans in April

Santa Anita could host customers as soon as early April.

Track officials are closely monitoring guidance from state government agencies related to when and how sports events in California can resume on-site audiences. The state’s Major League baseball teams expect to start their seasons on April 1 with a small number of customers in attendance.

Government officials have said in recent days that Los Angeles County, where Santa Anita is located, could move from the most restrictive purple tier of business conditions to the slightly less severe red tier in coming weeks, if vaccinations continue and the rate of positive cases continues a downward trajectory.

A move to the red tier would allow some indoor dining in the county, which is currently not available.

Along with outdoor stadiums, the state’s popular amusement parks also have pressured government officials to allow them to reopen to some extent.

Santa Anita general manager Nate Newby said Santa Anita is developing several scenarios of how to reopen to a limited audience as early as April 2. The track hosts the popular Santa Anita Derby program on April 3, but attendance will be limited, if a crowd is allowed by that day.

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The 2019 Santa Anita Derby program drew an ontrack audience of 30,713. The event was not held before the public in 2020 because of the pandemic.

Santa Anita has not had a sizable ontrack audience since Sunday, March 8, 2020, a program that drew a crowd of 5,169. In the following days, nearly all sporting events in the world were canceled because of the pandemic. Santa Anita raced for two more weekends without an ontrack audience before the track was ordered closed by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health because of the pandemic.

Racing resumed in mid-May with only vital track employees in attendance. Since last summer, a small number of owners with horses entered to race, and a select number of other participants, have been allowed to attend races at Del Mar and Santa Anita.

Newby said Santa Anita could have a limit of 20 percent capacity and was seeking more guidelines from county officials regarding a specific maximum.

“A venue of this size, 20 percent will be significant,” he said. “We could put on a good show. We have so much open space.”

When allowed to open, fans will be restricted to outdoor areas, such as the grandstand, box seats, and outdoor restaurants. The popular FrontRunner restaurant, an indoor facility that overlooks the track, would not be immediately available for use, Newby said.

Details regarding whether fans will need to make advance reservations and what food and beverage services will be available are under discussion, Newby said.

“We’ve started with multiple plans,” he said. “We want to make sure that we’re ready.”

As of Thursday, Santa Anita was holding discussions with the Thoroughbred Owners of California regarding the number of racing days in April. There is a likelihood the track will eliminate racing on a few Fridays in April to preserve the turf course through the conclusion of the current meeting on June 20, Newby said.