Southern California Horse Racing
Santa Anita Park
Santa Anita Park is a thoroughbred racetrack in Arcadia, 60 miles north of the Laguna Hills hotel. It offers some of the prominent racing events in the United States during the autumn and in winter. Santa Anita's season runs the end of September through early November.
This Southern California horse racing track is home to numerous prestigious races including both the Santa Anita Derby and the Santa Anita Handicap. Santa Anita Park was opened on December 25, 1934 and is the oldest racetrack in Southern California. - 56.6 miles
www.santaanita.com
Del Mar Racetrack
Del Mar Racetrack is an American Thoroughbred horse racing track at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in the seaside city of Del Mar, California, 20 miles north of San Diego. The trace is open from mid-July through early September.
Operated by the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, it is known for the slogan: "Where The Turf Meets The Surf." It was built by a partnership including Bing Crosby, the actor Pat O'Brien, Jimmy Durante, Charles S. Howard and Oliver Hardy.
When Del Mar opened in 1937, Bing Crosby was at the gate to personally greet the fans. On August 12, 1938, the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club hosted a $25,000 winner-take-all match race between Charles S. Howard's Seabiscuit and the Binglin Stable's colt, Ligaroti. In an era when horse racing ranked second in popularity with Americans to Major League Baseball, the match race was much written and talked about and was the first nationwide broadcast of a Thoroughbred race by NBC radio. In the race, Seabiscuit was ridden by jockey George Woolf and Ligaroti by Noel Richardson. In front of a record crowd that helped make the fledgling Del Mar race track a success, Seabiscuit won an exciting battle by a nose. - 53.71 miles - www.dmtc.com
