Oak Tree Meeting at Santa Anita : New Turf Course Seems to Mesh

Harangued by owners and trainers in recent years about the condition of the grass course, Santa Anita has spent more than $3 million to correct the problems, and the result will be on display today when the Oak Tree group opens its 21st racing season.

The first race on the new turf course is the third on today’s nine-race program, a 1 1/8-mile allowance for fillies and mares. Another grass race scheduled is at 6 1/2 furlongs, down the hill, and on Sunday the $100,000 Koester Handicap will become the first stake to be run over the new course.

Today’s opening stake is the $75,000 Sunny Slope for 2-year-olds, with the Wayne Lukas-trained entry of Grand Canyon and Nevada heading a seven-horse field.

Santa Anita’s problems with the grass course hit bottom last January, when heavy rain made the surface dangerous and forced the track to call off turf races. Lukas called the course “a joke,” and Allen Paulson, an owner who had an expensive horse destroyed after it suffered an injury, described the course as “the worst in the country.”

The same day the Santa Anita season ended last April, crews began working on the grass course. It has been widened from 65 to 80 feet and hybrid Bermuda grass has been planted over a mesh material called Netlon, which is expected to reduce the number of divots.

Santa Anita spent about $1 million last year on preliminary work and has spent another $2.1 million this year to complete the project.

“This is the most the track has ever spent on one project,” said Bob Strub, Santa Anita’s chief executive officer. “Obviously this was a priority with us, trying to come up with the best grass course we could.”

Trainer Ron McAnally’s wife, Debbie, stepped on it last week and said that it reminded her of petit point, a tightly woven stitching used in embroidery and worsted work.

Jockeys Chris McCarron and Corey Black both worked stakes horses over the course last week.

“It felt kind of spongy to me,” Black said. “The course was biased before in that only a few horses could handle it. Maybe 75% of the horses had trouble handling it. Now, it should be a lot fairer for most of the horses.”

McCarron has won five Oak Tree riding titles, more than any other jockey, and will be riding in both grass races today. He will also have the mount on the speedy Grand Canyon in the seven-furlong Sunny Slope.

“The grass course is firm, but it seems to have a good cushion,” McCarron said. “I don’t think there will be any bias, but if there is, it will be a speed bias.”

Netlon was developed by Brian Mercer, a technologist, in northern England 25 years ago. It has been used in fruit packaging and even to screen impurities in kidney dialysis, but it wasn’t until recently that two tracks in Hong Kong made the first racing use of the material. Santa Anita officials inspected the Happy Valley track in Hong Kong last year and then ordered Netlon, which reportedly accounts for $500,000 of the rebuilding cost.

“We have had inquiries from other race tracks about Netlon,” said David Sweetland, the company’s development manager. “A track in Malaysia might install it, and there are three or four tracks in the United States that are interested.”

Three of the five major races during Oak Tree’s 32-day season are on the grass--the $500,000 Oak Tree Invitational on Oct. 14, the $400,000 Yellow Ribbon on Nov. 12 and the $200,000 Burke Handicap, on closing day, Nov. 13.

Horse Racing Notes

Oak Tree’s first major race, next Monday’s $200,000 Oak Leaf for 2-year-old fillies, will be deprived of its favorite, Rue De Palm, who is injured. Rue De Palm won the Del Mar Debutante and ran against males, finishing second to Drag Race, in the Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 13. . . . Oak Tree runs Wednesday through Sunday, with Monday cards scheduled for next week and Nov. 13. Post time will be 1 p.m. until Oct. 28, when it changes to 12:30. . . . Santa Anita’s main track has also been renovated, giving the dirt strip less silt and clay.

Bruce Matthias of Anaheim has been hired as director of simulcast development at Santa Anita. Matthias will concentrate on satellite betting from Santa Anita to areas outside California. Next year, Santa Anita’s races are expected to be simulcast to Canterbury Downs, the financially troubled track near Minneapolis. Santa Anita is a minority owner of Canterbury and has a management contract with the track.

Randy Mitton, a 20-year veteran of the Thoroughbred Racing and Protective Bureau, including the last 10 years at Santa Anita, has retired and started a private investigative agency in Arcadia. . . . Several of the Oak Tree stakes will prepare horses to run in the Breeders’ Cup at Florida’s Gulfstream Park on Nov. 4. One of those horses, Rahy, probably will be the high-weighted starter, at 121 pounds, in Saturday’s $100,000 Ramser Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on the main track. . . . The stake is named after Hal C. Ramser, the Oak Tree vice president who died last May. The Ramser used to be the Yankee Valor Handicap.

Mill Native has been assigned high weight of 123 pounds for Sunday’s Koester Handicap at a mile on the grass. . . . Individualist, entered in the Sunny Slope, will be causing confusion, because he has the same name as a 6-year-old also running locally. The older Individualist was bred in England, which might have accounted for the Jockey Club’s approving the name of the 2-year-old. Normally, horses aren’t allowed to be given names of horses that are still active.