Live Racing Returns to Santa Anita Park

Live racing has returned once more to Santa Anita Park. The autumn meet begins Friday. 

"The main thing is making the racetrack more of a center of Arcadia, the spot everyone goes to hang out," CEO Mark Verge said.

To that end, the track has a number of special events planned for Saturday.

4:30-9 a.m.     

Training hours. This is a terrific opportunity to secure interviews with jockeys, trainers and other horsemen trackside at Santa Anita’s Clockers’ Corner with the spectacular backdrop of sunrise over the San Gabriel Mountains

11 a.m.-noon 

Trainer Doug O’Neill, who won this year’s Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes with I’ll Have Another, will sign autographs for fans. The first 15,000 fans through the gates will receive a yellow Santa Anita baseball cap like the one worn by O’Neill during his run toward the Triple Crown.

Noon              

Santa Anita Park will unveil a life-sized statue of Zenyatta. The beloved mare won 19 consecutive races, including the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita in 2009, considered by many to be the greatest event in Santa Anita’s long history and in the history of the Breeders’ Cup. Zenyatta will join Seabiscuit and John Henry as the only horses memorialized with statues at The Great Race Place. Zenyatta’s owners, Jerry and Ann Moss, as well as her trainer, John Shireffs, are expected to attend.

1 p.m.             

First post. Races will be run until approximately 5:30 p.m. Saturday features five Grade I races with purses totaling $1.25 million. They are all “Win and You’re In” stakes races, with the winners guaranteed entry into the Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Santa Anita on Nov. 2 and 3.

All day           

Food Truck Festival. From the time the gates open at 11 a.m. through the end of the race day, many of L.A.’s most popular food trucks will congregate in Santa Anita’s infield to offer fans a wide variety of culinary options. The Food Truck Festivals have proven to be Santa Anita’s most popular promotion over the last two years.