Derby Day a Glorious One at Santa Anita

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified Tim Conway as Tom Conway.

It was a bright sun-backed day of 88 degrees in Arcadia on Saturday for Derby Day at , and stars came out.

is when the Santa Anita Derby, one of the major Kentucky Derby prep races, is contested. This was the 75th running of the historic race, which now offers a purse of $750,000, with $450,000 going to the winner.

It was an exciting race, with a horse appropriately named I’ll Have Another, nipping the favorite, Creative Cause, by a nose to become the West Coast’s top representative in the Kentucky Derby on May 5.

The Santa Anita Derby, which has produced 15 Kentucky Derby winners, drew a crowd of 33,166, including a number of stars. Tim Conway was there with his son, Tim Conway Jr. Helen Mirren was there with her husband, Taylor Hackford, the president of the Directors Guild of America.

There were also young, attractive women everywhere—many of them wearing hats.

The Chandelier Room in the Turf Club, often too quiet these days, was hopping. Four bartenders weren’t enough to handle the crowd. And it became really jammed after Trevor Denman announced to the crowd everyone was invited to the Chandelier Room for a party after the races. Generally, the Chandelier Room is off limits unless you pay a $20 admission fee.

There seems to be a new atmosphere at Santa Anita, and most responsible for that is , who is working closely with and marketing chief Chris Quinn to draw in new, younger fans.

They’re also trying to appeal to the old regulars and those who like to wager on the horses. There was a guaranteed $750,000 Late Pick 4, and a total of $992,602 was bet. There were 7,628 winning tickets, with each paying $99.30.

Verge was hoping for a crowd of 40,000, but he was satisfied with the turnout. Randy Fowler, the head of food and beverage, said one good thing about this crowd was in general the people were spending money on food and beverage.

“We were pretty active everywhere,” Fowler said.

Santa Anita owner Frank Stronach flew in from his home in the Toronto area to spend the weekend. On Saturday, he sat with Keith Brackpool, the chairman of the California Horse Racing Board, which governs horse racing in the state.

Both seem pleased with the direction Santa Anita is taking under Verge.

“We’re constantly looking to improve the place, try to get new ideas and get new people involved,” Stronach told Arcadia Patch. “I’m very optimistic about it.”

Brackpool said, “I echo what Frank said. I think it is important to have someone involved who can bring fresh ideas to the sport.”

The group having the most fun at Santa Anita on Saturday appeared to be some 400 employees from the “CashCall” loan company in Anaheim. The winning horse, I’ll Have Another, is owned by Paul Reddam, who also owns CashCall. He arranged for any of his 1,300 employees who wanted to see I’ll Have Another run to come on buses he arranged. They got free admission and a $24 voucher.

At least 200 of this group jammed the winner’s circle after the race, creating a scene longtime horse racing observers had never seen before. They kept chanting “CashCall.”

No one was saying “last call.”

Asked about how he came up with the name for the horse, Reddam said, “The joke is when I’m on the couch with my wife (Zillah) watching TV and she has baked a batch of cookies, I’m always saying, ‘I’ll have another.’ “

Now that phrase means another big race, which in this case is the Kentucky Derby.