Santa Anita sees attendance, handle rise

Santa Anita's 39-day Spring Meeting, which began on April 24, ended on Sunday

with the track showing gains in both on-track attendance and overall pari-mutuel

handle. Combined with its 68-day Winter Meet that ran from December 26 through

April 19, on-track attendance was up 7 percent, overall mutuel handle was up 3

percent and total handle exceeded $1 billion for the second year in a row.

"First off, we want to sincerely thank our fans, owners, horsemen and our

jockeys for a very successful meet," said Santa Anita Chairman Keith Brackpool.

"We're very proud of the fact our turf course and main track again performed

extremely well, which enabled us to consistently field a world- class product.

"We also want to thank Bob Baffert and his team for sharing America's newest

Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile), so graciously with

our fans and media ever since his arrival back here on June 18. We had a

tremendous crowd here on Gold Cup Day of more than 21,000 people and many of

them were here to see American Pharoah. Having a horse of this magnitude based

here at Santa Anita is a great honor and we can't thank Bob enough for his

generosity."

Santa Anita will re-open for live racing on September 26.

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