Harness Racing at Santa Anita

[sharkie187]

Does anyone remember or did anyone ever visit Santa Anita when they hosted harness races?

[pandy]

Originally Posted by sharkie187

Does anyone remember or did anyone ever visit Santa Anita when they hosted harness races?

Wasn't that Hollywood Park?

[thespaah]

Originally Posted by pandy

Wasn't that Hollywood Park?

I was thinking the same thing....I will research..
Well guess what? Santa Anita actually did host harness meets. This article( don't read just skim as the writing style will make you want to just forget the whole thing) about 3/4's the way down mentions a harness meet at SA....There are photos if you scroll to the lower part of the link.
http://www.chhaonline.com/history/Ho...rkFeb1946.html

[thespaah]

And here is another story about Harness at SA into the 1960's.
http://www.chhaonline.com/history/santaAnita1961.html

[Milkshaker]

Originally Posted by thespaah

And here is another story about Harness at SA into the 1960's.
http://www.chhaonline.com/history/santaAnita1961.html

From the article:

"Lumber Dream made a sensational debut on opening Saturday, winning in 2:04 after making a stand-still break at the start and losing a sixteenth of a mile."

Harness at Santa Anita! That must've been awesome!

[jimmy m]

Little before my time so I don't remember SA.Both Del mar and Fairplex had harness racing in the 80s.I lived 10 minutes from Fairplex growing up I went there with my father a lot.It ran in 86 thru 87 and had a fall day meet where me and my father would count how many people where there.Vic called a few races one afternoon there.Went to Del Mar harness one day think it was 84 do not remember the days.

[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,

[Zaf]

I am very surprised that Southern California hasn't had an NFL team or a Harness track for so many years. Well we know football is back.

Z

[dogkatcher]

Being a Fossil, I recall going to Santa Anita for Harness also went to Hollywood Park during the early 70's.

[Tall One]

Been awhile, but i believe in Ainslie's book on harness racing, he included example PP's for Hollywood Park. About as close as I got too their circuit.

I agree with Zaf here. I know the fair meets are going on during the summer, but i think thirty days or so with night racing in So Cal, could be a success. Give it a Grand Circuit type billing, and go to town.

I guess the main obstacle is where would they draw horses from, which if it's Cal-Expo...oooof.

[SuperPickle]

So I was bored this weekend and read all the links above.

It appears in the 1940's they had an actually circuit of Santa Anita, Hollywood and Bay Meadows. It looks like each track ran about 60 days starting in December/January so six month in total and then everyone would ship back east.

Here's the sad part. They talk about a $20,000 race at Hollywood and a $12,000 race at Santa Anita in the early 60's. Over 50 years later I don't think the weekly Feature at Cal Expo is $12,000.

The article really reflects how big harness was from the post war 1940's up until the 1960's and then the sport started to slowly die.

[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

[thespaah]

Originally Posted by Tall One

Been awhile, but i believe in Ainslie's book on harness racing, he included example PP's for Hollywood Park. About as close as I got too their circuit.

I agree with Zaf here. I know the fair meets are going on during the summer, but i think thirty days or so with night racing in So Cal, could be a success. Give it a Grand Circuit type billing, and go to town.

I guess the main obstacle is where would they draw horses from, which if it's Cal-Expo...oooof.

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

[thespaah]

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

That is correct. Joe O'Brien was THE GUY at Los Al....
When the modified sulky became the norm O'Brien insisted on sticking with the conventional...
Was at Meadowlands one night and I guess O'Brien was on a catch drive.
Some guy yelled out "Hey O'Brien, It's a modified! Where ya gonna sit?!!!!"

[thespaah]

Originally Posted by SuperPickle

So I was bored this weekend and read all the links above.

It appears in the 1940's they had an actually circuit of Santa Anita, Hollywood and Bay Meadows. It looks like each track ran about 60 days starting in December/January so six month in total and then everyone would ship back east.

Here's the sad part. They talk about a $20,000 race at Hollywood and a $12,000 race at Santa Anita in the early 60's. Over 50 years later I don't think the weekly Feature at Cal Expo is $12,000.

The article really reflects how big harness was from the post war 1940's up until the 1960's and then the sport started to slowly die.

Yeah. Pretty sad. The tracks with casinos are giving out lots more money that those without.
Last Saturday's Meadowlands card had a grand total of TWO races where the purse exceeded $10k....The purses at Meadowlands now are LOWER than they were 35 years ago....In fact, on a Saturday card, there might have been one NW 2 or a $15k claimer where the purses for those were the lowest on the grounds at $9500....
So using an inflation calculator using Sat nite's avg purse which was around $9k.....equates to about $3,128 in 1980 dollars. In 1985 dollars it's $4,085..
Figuratively the purses at Meadowlands over the last 30 years have fallen by about 50%.....How these people can make a living making half what they were 30 years ago is a mystery
On the other hand. Harrah's Philly is paying $20k claimers a $15k purse. Their NW of $15k L6 are racing for $25K or more.