Santa Anita numbers slide

Aside from Breeders' Cup Day, which was excluded from meet totals, the 2003 Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita was a disappointment to track officials. Average daily handle for the meet, which ended Nov. 9, declined 0.8 percent to $9,631,159, down from last year's $9,709,897, according to figures released by the Oak Tree Racing Association. Average ontrack attendance was down 9.2 percent to 8,913 from 9,813 in 2002.

Average daily ontrack handle declined 3.1 percent to $1,981,805 from $2,044,989.

Average daily handle at satellite locations dropped 2.1 percent to $2,655,071. Last year, satellite locations produced average handle of $2,712,390. Oak Tree officials said a bus strike, wildfires, and a supermarket strike were partly responsible for the declines.

In a statement, Sherwood Chillingworth, Oak Tree's executive vice president said, "We believe . . . that were it not for the strikes and fires, we would have seen much better results."