Santa Anita races to be shown on TVG

The Santa Anita winter-spring meeting that begins on Dec. 26 will be shown on TVG, the racing network announced on Wednesday.

It will be the first time that TVG has shown the races from the winter-spring meeting. Earlier this year, the California Horse Racing Board urged TVG and its rival network, HRTV, to share exclusive signals of California racetracks. The reciprocal agreement was a term of the license for the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting that was approved by the racing board in October.

HRTV, owned by the Stronach Group, the parent company of Santa Anita, had previously held exclusive television rights to the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting.

As a result of the reciprocal sharing of signals, Golden Gate Fields, which is owned by Stronach Group, was shown for the first time on TVG earlier this year. Hollywood Park, closely allied with TVG since the network’s formation in the late 1990s, was shown on HRTV during the fall meeting that ended last Sunday.

Wider distribution of television signals is seen by racing officials as a boost to generating greater interest in the sport. TVG said in a statement on Wednesday that it plans to present Santa Anita races on programs that it simulcasts on the regional Fox Sports networks in parts of the country.