New Santa Anita boss promises 'a good show' as meet opens

In the lead up to what some have called the most important race meet in California history, the prevailing thought around Santa Anita Park doesn’t seem to be one of concern or trepidation. Instead, track officials and horsemen have echoed similar sentiment this week: Changes have been instituted and things are ready. Now it's on with the show. 

Santa Anita’s 23-day autumn meet, which opens Friday, marks the return of live racing to Arcadia, Calif., some three-plus months after a winter-spring session of around six months that resulted in the deaths of 30 equine athletes in racing and training. In response to the spike in fatalities, Santa Anita underwent an array of reforms designed to make the sport safer. These include more stringent safety protocols for racing and training, a new drainage system for the racetrack and the addition of built-in “flex dates” that will be used to make up for any racing programs canceled because of potential unsafe conditions. 

These reforms, many of which were utilized successfully at the recent Del Mar meet, have track officials and horsemen confident it’s a new day in Santa Anita racing.

“People around here don’t seem to be watching and holding their breath any longer,” said Aidan Butler, recently appointed acting executive director of California racing by track owner The Stronach Group. “People are starting to feel all of the reforms we started here earlier this year and were fine-tuned at Del Mar are working. I’ve got a big team, and that whole team’s focus is to get the horses around safely and get them back healthy. We’re going to put on a good show.”

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Trainer Simon Callaghan acknowledged this meet will be under increased scrutiny given the recent safety record at Santa Anita but said there isn’t really a sense of increased nervousness around the track. 

“Obviously it’s important for things to go really well, but Santa Anita and all the horsemen have really worked together to ensure that things will go well,” Callaghan said. “I’m confident the track is good and that all the extra procedures and checks will continue to work as they should. I think everything is going to go as it should.”

As for the racetrack itself, former track superintendent Dennis Moore has been retained as a consultant after coming on board in March during the apex of the safety problems at Santa Anita. Moore had been Santa Anita’s track superintendent from 2014 until his “retirement” -- or dismissal, depending on who you ask -- in December, just on the eve of the winter-spring meet. 

By all accounts, Moore and fellow consultant Dr. Mick Peterson have managed to stabilize any potential issues with the racing surface. 

“From the horsemen’s perspective, Dennis Moore’s presence puts us so much at ease,” said trainer Gary Mandella. “That’s really how much confidence we have in Dennis, that I don’t really have a big sense of tension. 

“We’ve had three weeks since we’ve been back from Del Mar. It’s not like we just moved in and now let’s race. We’ve all been here and we’ve seen that the track is just like Dennis left it, and we all know how good it was by the time we left here.”

The most notable change to the main track is a new drainage system installed this summer, called a French drainage system. 

“Every year they do a bunch of renovations, but the big addition this year was the French drainage system installed near the rail,” Butler said. “I believe Keeneland has one as well. It’s basically like a massive draining pipe that can not only pull water from the track should you have crazy rain like we had this winter, but it also pulls it off evenly. Hopefully we'll never have to use it."

On rainy days where the track does come up sloppy, Butler added Santa Anita may simply decide to cancel the program and reschedule. That’s where the flex dates come in to make up for any lost racing days. 

“The thought is if the track gets terrible, we’re not rolling the dice. It’s that simple,” Butler said. “We’ve built in these flex dates But It’s not an exact science. When there is inclement weather, there will be a big team, myself included, with all the best people from the track crews and all the different stakeholders. Everything is going to be considered. But there is no taking any chances on anything. If not everybody is a thumbs up, it’s not going. I’m not playing around.”

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The added safety protocols for racing and training are extensive. The most recent addition was the requirement all entries be accompanied by a pre-race exam form, signed by a trainer’s veterinarian declaring there are no known issues with a horses that would preclude it from racing. 

Mandella indicated horsemen have embraced the changes, as it’s largely only a matter of added clerical work.

“We’re not doing anything different. We just have to change the way we do it,” Mandella said. “And by that I mean make everything more official. Instead of looking at a horse and feeling it with your own hands everyday, and knowing how he is feeling and going through it with the vets. Instead of us all knowing in our minds that we’ve checked all these horses and everything has been looked at really closely, it now has to be put down on paper and recorded. And that’s fine. Especially if that puts everyone that’s outside of the backstretch at ease about how we do things.

“Let’s put things on paper and show people how actually we’ve always done things. It’s just been done unofficially. Now we have to do it in an official manner and keep record of it. That’s fine. I don’t think any of the horsemen have a problem with any of this. In fact, I think we all appreciate how it’s been handled.”

Among those with watchful eyes on the upcoming Santa Anita meet are the California Horse Racing Board and officials for Breeders’ Cup. Rick Baedeker, executive director of the CHRB, noted racing at Santa Anita and throughout California will continue to be closely observed.

“I think that racing at Santa Anita over the next two meets, this one and of course the longer [winter-spring] meet, are going to be critically important,” Baedeker said. “Particularly the second one when the weather becomes a challenging factor.”

Baedeker added that all signs have been pointing positive that California is on the right track with regards to equine safety. 

“You can do everything you can possibly think of to achieve the lowest number [of equine fatalities] possible,” Baedeker said. “Ever since the review panel was placed in the middle of June, we went nine weeks without a fatality in the afternoon. We know that process has worked. The CHRB and management of Santa Anita are doing everything possible to achieve the lowest number possible.”

Questions for this story were submitted to a spokesman for the Breeders’ Cup, which will conduct its championships on Nov. 1-2 at Santa Anita. No comment was provided by press time. 

Butler, whose grandfather was a bookmaker in his native England and is well-versed in the sport, acknowledged he has never run a racetrack. It also wasn’t necessarily the plan for him to become the new head of Santa Anita when first hired by the company as its "chief strategic officer." But he “absolutely fell in love with Santa Anita” when coming for a management meeting in February and felt he could make an immediate impact. He was named to the new post in August. 

“I feel we can really make inroads here,” Butler said. “They needed someone who, I guess, is a little whacky to uproot some things. My poor wife, she was like ‘What are we doing now?’ But I see Santa Anita as a really worthy cause. 

“If you’re going to try and grow horse racing, if you hope racing survives way into the future, which I think if done right it deserves to be, then the strategy is key,” Butler continued. “I see Santa Anita hopefully as being the real test case for what horse racing can be moving forward. This is a big, beautiful place. It’s “The Great Race Place.” It deserves every bit of effort and hard work that we can give it.”