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Originally Posted by horsefan2019
The state has already hired somebody to consult on the future use of the Del Mar property....safe to say its probably not going to be the only horse racing track left if the rest of the circuit collapses. As somebody who has been visiting the local Socal tracks since the 80's the answer is pretty simple. People stopped going to the tracks and betting.
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This. But also, the game nationalized and even globalized.
In the old days, our good weather and rich economy meant that we offered big purses and drew big crowds, which then drew top stables and jockeys and owners to California to participate. It was a virtuous cycle. When I first started going to the races as a kid, Santa Anita averaged 27,000 people on track racing 5 days a week, and Hollywood Park was similar (and was down a bit from averaging 30,000 people in the 1950's and 1960's). Think about those numbers. Typical weekend crowds were over 40,000; big races drew 50,000, 60,000, even 80,000 on occasion! When Seattle Slew came to Hollywood Park on July 3, 1977 you couldn't even move around the grandstand it was so crowded.
And a major point here-- we sustained this even for years after other markets declined. I remember the first time I went to see a race in New York, the 1986 Marlboro Cup. And I was shocked at the tiny crowd at Belmont Park-- because that sort of race would easily draw 50,000 at Santa Anita. NYRA's attendance for everything but the Belmont and Travers was terrible at that point (and even their Belmont crowds were much lower than what they draw now). California was flying high.
What happened? Simulcasting and Dubai happened. Simulcasting completely changed the economics of the game. Since bettors could bet on any race they wanted to, they no longer were wedded to whatever the local track offered. And that also meant that tracks that drew nobody on track but had lower labor costs, lower takeouts, and slot or casino or state subsidy money could out-compete California for handle. And our attendance collapsed and we were never able to compete in the new completely handle-driven marketplace, because our costs were high and we didn't have any subsidies.
Dubai is the other thing. It's a subtle point. But Santa Anita's "big race" attendance held on a lot longer than its average attendance. Santa Anita still staged the Santa Anita Handicap as an "event" and had prep races feeding it. And people still came. But Dubai absolutely destroyed the Santa Anita Handicap with its gigantic purses which Santa Anita cannot compete with. Indeed, the Santa Anita Handicap's purse has been DECLINING, despite inflation, from $1 million in 1986 to $400,000 this year. And it draws nobody special and nobody in LA pays attention to it anymore. We lucked out in 2014 when Baffert, Lukas, and Ritvo didn't want to ship their horses to Dubai and we got one more great Santa Anita Handicap (which drew a small but enthusiastic crowd but produced the second fastest 1 1/4 miles on dirt of all time), but the race is dead and the notion of Santa Anita as the "Great Race Place" is also dead.
Santa Anita was an attendance- and star-driven track. It can't compete in the new world where all that matters is handle, nobody cares about stars (and indeed, horse racing doesn't even really produce them anymore because any male horse that does anything impressive immediately goes to stud), and the top horses are all lured to the Middle East in the winter to run. It's really over and it's just a matter of when.
