Santa Anita opening day draws biggest crowd since 2016

ARCADIA, Calif. – Sunday’s opening day of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting drew an announced ontrack crowd of 41,962, the highest since 46,514 attended the first day of the 2016-17 meeting.

Sunday’s figure was slightly higher than the 2024 opening day crowd of 41,562 held on a Thursday. Opening day is typically Dec. 26. Sunday was supposed to be the third day of the current meeting, but the Friday and Saturday programs were canceled over the weekend because of substantial rain last week.

In 2019, the opening day was postponed for two days because of similar circumstances and drew 35,085 on a Saturday.

Sunday’s all-sources handle was more than $18.2 million, according to figures released to the press. The 2024 opening-day program had an all-sources handle of more than $21.4 million.

Sunday’s ontrack handle was more than $2.76 million, slightly more than $2.56 million last year.

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