Harness Racing at Santa Anita

[SandyW]

Originally Posted by Shemp Howard

Meadow Skipper (Eddie Wheeler), sire of Albatross, grandsire of Niatross,raced frequently at Santa Anita in the early 1960's.

Jimmy Cruise was leading driver there 6 or 7 times; HOF'ers Joe Obrien and Del Miller also wintered there,

Meadow Skipper, greatest mud sire of all times.
I bet and won on lots of his babies on off tracks.

[Tall One]

Originally Posted by thespaah

Here ya go....From Tom Ainslie's Complete Guide to Harness Racing....
I have had this book for almost 40 years.
Oh, use the one marked Ainslie 2A...Its a little large. PA has restrictions on file sizes. I cannot figure out how to make my scanner convert to pdf

As Greg Young would say...And there they are.

Thanks, spaah..I still use Ainslie's book for reference and some guidelines--have to as it's the only book on the Dark Side I've got...

[dilanesp]

Here's a couple of calls from Santa Anita from the great Roy Shudt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osmAnowxuHw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGPE01p9vls

[sharkie187]

So I did a little more research and what I found made perfect sense (at least at that time).

One article I read (don't know why I can't post the link) showed that the reason harness racing stopped in Southern CA is because the owner of Hollywood Park in the 70s/80s saw it as a threat to their business. It was ASSUMED that tracks like Del Mar and Santa Anita were going to run their harness races during the DAY at the same time the regular races were being ran at HP. Obviously there was no ongoing discussion because the owner of Del Mar said they had no intentions of running daytime harness races, but it ultimately ended up killing the circuit and leaving Fairplex and Los Al with a dying harness racing circuit...which now is dwindling up in Cal Expo.

Wish SA or Del Mar would bring harness racing back to Southern CA. Hawthrone did it, why can't they?

[Inner Dirt]

Originally Posted by moneyandland

Los Alamitos had harness racing until sometime in 2000's, I remember top Meadowlands FFA pacers would race there in a series in the winter

Are you sure? I lived in Southern California from 1961-2011 and started betting horses at 18 in 1979, I bet on quarters, harness, and thoroughbreds. Maybe I don't remember correctly. But I think harness racing was gone out of So Cal by 1990 or so.

[outofthebox]

Originally Posted by Inner Dirt

Are you sure? I lived in Southern California from 1961-2011 and started betting horses at 18 in 1979, I bet on quarters, harness, and thoroughbreds. Maybe I don't remember correctly. But I think harness racing was gone out of So Cal by 1990 or so.

Read an article in Harnesslink saying that 2000 was the last year of Harness at Los Al. 2001 was the first year of year round Quarter horse racing.

[dilanesp]

Harness racing died at the major tracks when Los Al offered them more racedays than the major tracks could.

Harness racing died at Los Al due to the race fixing scandals. A bunch of funny business happened and gamblers stayed away. Los Al found quarter horse racing more profitable and the sulkies went off to Sacramento.

[Redbullsnation]

Cal Expo is hanging by a thread. But, man oh man, you would think that SoCal would be a Utopia for ALL racing. So sad to see the situation over there. I feel for appreciated that tracks like Pompano are still kicking here

[Inner Dirt]

Originally Posted by outofthebox

Read an article in Harnesslink saying that 2000 was the last year of Harness at Los Al. 2001 was the first year of year round Quarter horse racing.

If it lasted till 2000 I really believe they were sporadic short meets. I know I don't have the greatest memory but I just remember Los Harness going great guns, mid to late 80's then tailing off.

[outofthebox]

I left California in 95 and the Los Al meet was going pretty good during the winter months. Shamelessly i took the 605 from Santa Anita a few times in hope i would recoup some losses from the day races.

[racenarios]

I see that I'm late to this party, but I was thinking about the 1st time my dad took me to the races so I went web searching to check dates. Cant find much, but I DO remember distinctly that it was harness racing at Santa Anita on a Saturday afternoon. Must have been 1962, making me 7, which seems about right. I recall that we went to watch the favorite, Jeffrey C, run in the feature race [maybe because my name is Jeffrey too?] and he ran well. He had a big lead in the stretch but got nailed at the wire by $100 winner Peppy Tass.

The next time we went they were running at Hollywood Park. I believe SA had already given up on harness racing, and I know that HP was preparing for night racing because my uncle's electrical contracting firm got the job installing the lights there. When the job was finished, my uncle was given a turf club credential by race track mgmt and we got to hobnob with celebrities. But I believe they were still running during the day when I went for that 2nd time, and, ironically, Jeffrey C was the feature race favorite, Peppy Tass was 50-1, and history repeated itself when Peppy nailed Jeffy at the wire once again.

[Denny]

Field size wasn't great last week at Meadowlands either.

They ran ten races and only half had 8 or more.

Still, I'd rather bet them than Yonkers.

[oughtoh]

Does anyone remember when they had Harness racing at Del Mar. Think it was in the late 70's.

[Inner Dirt]

Originally Posted by outofthebox

I left California in 95 and the Los Al meet was going pretty good during the winter months. Shamelessly i took the 605 from Santa Anita a few times in hope i would recoup some losses from the day races.

Took that trip many times myself, but only if I won at Santa Anita. I only liked playing harness and quarters after a day at the thoroughbreds if I could play with house money.

[Gekish]

I arrived in LA March 20, 1961. Checked the LA Times saw that the buggies were running at Santa Anita, rented a car and drove there. I was young and drunk.