Racing Into the New Year

We spent yesterday at Santa Anita watching the ponies run. My husband has become an avid racing fan and even does a fair amount of mobile betting. It's the one equestrian activity that I can get him to do eagerly.

Santa Anita Park

Santa Anita Park is just a few minutes south of Pasadena and the Rose Bowl Stadium, nestled beneath the San Gabriel Mountains. My experience with Thoroughbred racing is limited to the tracks I've seen on TV, and this one. I may be biased, but with its art deco architecture, Santa Anita has to be one of the prettiest race tracks. The park was first opened in 1934. 

From an earlier visit

Racing fans are actually looking forward to next weekend's races. California Chrome, 2014 Horse of the Year, will be running in the 1 1/16 miles San Pasqual Stakes at Santa Anita Park. Yesterday, he drew quite a crowd as he put in one last workout running 6 furlongs in 1:10.04. We got to the park just in time to see him run.

This is the second time we've seen him run in person.

After a (less than stellar) lunch trackside at the Turf Terrace where we watched the first two races, we finally made out way to our box seats. Don't get too excited. Box seats are cheap at Santa Anita on regular race days. A box for four costs $60. The view is great, and equally as important, access to the paddocks, food, and betting is super convenient.

When we got to our section, we were stopped by an usher who directed us to see another usher. I hate getting hassled about seats; we're good readers. It's not that hard to follow the signs to your section and box. Instead of showing us our box, the usher quickly apologized for the inconvenience, shoved four drink tickets in our hands, and upgraded us to a box reserved for season ticket holders. It was a gigantic upgrade as it placed us almost directly in line with the finish line. We're not sure what happened, but box seats had sold out for the day, so maybe someone over-sold the seats.

Second row from the bottom, first box in from the aisle. The finish line is just to the right where the Longines clock is sitting.

One of the things that makes Santa Anita Park so much fun is that the crowd can get really, really close to the horses in the paddock.

Tacking up

From the paddock, the horses walk down a short path to the Riding Oval and from there they go through the tunnel and out onto the track. Even on a busy day, like the Breeders' Cup, it's easy to follow your horse from naked to running.

Riding Oval - this is where the jockeys mount and the owners and whoever else is invited hang out for photos and being seen.

There were nine races on Saturday's schedule, and we of course made bets on all of them. My husband is the more aggressive bettor, so he usually comes home with more than he started. Even after paying for lunch and tickets and drinks, he still came home with $200 more than he started with. Me, I keep my bets small, $5 - $6 a race. I only had winning tickets for the last two races, but it's fun just to have a horse to root for.  

Eighth race, horse number 8, named Obviously. How could I go wrong? He finished second.

If you've never been to a horse race, you should go. It's a lot of fun, and it's surprisingly cheap.  And if you live anywhere near me, you should definitely check into a trip to Santa Anita Park!