Santa Anita Park‘s 2024-25 Classic Meet is heading into the homestretch by maintaining the strong gains in on track attendance and total all-sources handle that began on the opening day of the track’s 90th year. This year’s Classic Meet comes to a close April 6, which features the Santa Anita Derby (G1) on Saturday.
The season kicked off Dec. 26, 2024, with the largest non-weekend or holiday opening day crowd in 34 years. Attendance kept that momentum, despite the local community being severely impacted by January’s Eaton Fire, with last weekend’s on-track crowd up over 30%. To date, Santa Anita has hosted more than 293,000 visitors during the Classic Meet, a gain of more than 8% over last year.
The total all-sources mutuel handle has been paced by the opening-day number of more than $21.4 million, the third-highest for an opening in the track’s history. Horseplayers on-track and around the world have continued to back Santa Anita’s races, wagering over $20 million last weekend and bringing this season’s total to nearly $414 million, a 4% increase over last year.
The support of the owners and trainers at the Santa Anita entry box has helped fuel an increase in field size, which has continued to benefit from the influx of Northern California horses. The field size is up 8% percent over the corresponding time last year, with 307 horses entered the final three days of the meet.
The Santa Anita Classic Meet concludes on Sunday, April 6. The Hollywood Meet will open at the Arcadia track on Friday, April 18 and continue through Sunday, June 15. As previously announced, purses for the Hollywood Meet will be further enhanced by an average of 10% from 2024.
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