Track hoping American Pharoah will boost business

ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita’s spring-summer meeting has shown a 9 percent increase in attendance over last year, a track official said. There is hope that that figure could rise further before the meeting ends June 28 with the interest created by American Pharoah’s Triple Crown win last Saturday.

Nate Newby, Santa Anita’s marketing director, said on Sunday that the track is planning promotions centering on American Pharoah. An American Pharoah poster giveaway is planned for Saturday. Santa Anita is hoping to parade American Pharoah on June 27, the day of the $500,000 Gold Cup.

American Pharoah is currently based at Churchill Downs and is scheduled to be paraded Saturday evening during the track’s Stephen Foster Handicap program. American Pharoah is scheduled to return to Bob Baffert’s stable at Santa Anita in the next week. Newby said another promotion under consideration is to invite the public to watch American Pharoah train at Santa Anita before the Baffert stable leaves for the summer meeting at Del Mar next month.

Newby said the rise in attendance at the spring-summer meeting can be largely attributed to a strong Memorial Day weekend, when the track turned the infield into a county-fair amusement area with Ferris wheels and other rides. Newby said the three-day Memorial weekend May 22-24 showed an attendance increase of 15,000 people over 2014.

The Belmont Stakes simulcast failed to produce numbers as strong as last year’s. Attendance last Saturday was 26,287 compared with 31,208 in 2014, when California Chrome was attempting to sweep the Triple Crown. California Chrome raced at Santa Anita in the first months of 2014, creating a significant local following. American Pharoah was based at Santa Anita earlier this year but has not raced at Santa Anita since last September.

All-sources handle also was down last Saturday, from $21.2 million in 2014 to $19.2 million. The ontrack handle fell from $5.2 million in 2014 to $3.7 million.

Conversely, Sunday’s business was stronger than on the corresponding day last year, according to figures released to the media. Attendance was 6,243 compared with 5,707 on the corresponding day last year.

For the season, Newby said ontrack and all-sources handle were “flat.” The meet began April 24.

For the year, including the winter-spring meeting Dec. 26 to April 19, the track has had a 6 percent gain in attendance and a rise of 3 percent in all-sources handle, Newby said. Ontrack handle has fallen 1 percent during that time.