The last time the Santa Anita meeting opened on a day other than December 26, no one came. The turnout was officially zero. No fan in the house.
On the other hand, the rainy reason for the two-day delay this time is blissfully mild compared to the conditions surrounding winter 2020. Covid-19 killed more than 63,000 Americans in December alone. The show went on, but only for simulcast gambling purposes, and it wasn’t until March 2021 that customers were allowed to return for the live racing experience.
Believe it or not, for the first four years of Santa Anita’s existence, the meeting opened on Christmas Day, beginning in 1934. This was a courageous move, typical of the empresario personality embodied by Dr. Charles Henry Strub, a dentist by trade, who founded the partnership that built the million-dollar race track just as the Great Depression was gathering steam. Santa Anita was Strub’s Christmas gift to a local culture devoid of abundance.
In terms of competition for the entertainment dollar, Santa Anita was pretty much the best game in town when it first opened its doors. Management made sure the public was aware with an advertising campaign that promised racing “rain or shine” and a grandstand admission fee of $1.10 ($3.30 for the clubhouse).
During Christmas week of 1934, moviegoers could come to Grauman’s Chinese in Hollywood to see Shirley Temple, age six, in “Bright Eyes,” or head to the 4 Star Theater in Wilshire near La Brea for Helen Hayes and an all-star cast in “What Every Woman Knows.” Christmas Day itself featured State League football games at Loyola Stadium, with a team sponsored by actor Victor McLaglen, while professional winter baseball was represented with a Christmas Day doubleheader at White Sox Ball Park in South LA. There were no Rams, no Chargers, no Lakers, and only the preparation for a Stanford-Alabama Rose Bowl to distract from the Ponies.
The idea of opening the day after Christmas did not become reality until 1949. As a marketing ploy, the date turned out to be worth its weight in gold, and the 26th still has legs. The weather is always the key to success, but the day of the week is just as important. Christmas Sunday in 1960, the opening day crowd that Monday numbered 71,012 people. Four years later, the Saturday opening attracted 70,023 visitors. Last year the announced number of attendees on Thursday was 37,143.
For Michael McCarthy, opening day at Santa Anita was one of the rituals of his childhood growing up in Arcadia, California. Now it’s another work day, albeit busier than most, with Sunday’s string of good races fitting right in with the residents of his bursting Santa Anita stable.
“We moved here in the summer of ’76,” McCarthy said. “And in those days, if you wanted to go to opening day, you had to leave your house early, otherwise the traffic was so heavy that you were virtually locked in.”
The McCarthy stable had its best season ever in 2025 with earnings of almost $10.4 million. Just under $4.2 million of that was earned Journalism winner of the Preakness Stakes (G1), the Haskell Stakes (G1) and the Santa Anita Derby (G1) and is running for seconds in the Kentucky Derby (G1), Belmont Stakes (G1) and Pacific Classic Stakes (G1).
Trainer Michael McCarthy during the build-up to the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs
The trainer will try to complete his total on the opening day with eight entries and one also eligible, spread over five races.
“It’s only good if you’re competitive,” McCarthy said. “If that’s not the case, it’s not really fun. Everything will be fine, as long as we don’t throw a shutout.”
McCarthy will attempt three stakes on the schedule, including the 7-furlong La Brea Stakes (G1) for three-year-old fillies with Just a joke who pulled the rail. While he was trained by Whit Beckman in the Midwest, the daughter of Practical joke won the Letellier Memorial Stakes in her first start and then came straight back to take the Silverbulletday Stakes and finish second in the Fantasy Stakes (G2).
Simply Joking couldn’t handle the messy track in the Kentucky Oaks (G1) and she had a nightmare trip in the Raven Run Stakes (G2), her first start for McCarthy. Only a second for the talented older filly Hoopweg in the Bayakoa Stakes (G3) at Sea in November was encouraging. She races for the partnership of Grantley Acres, Ryan Conner, CMNWLTH and Berkels0813.
“Obviously we would have preferred to go a little further out,” McCarthy said. “She is a quality colt who does everything well. Her owners want to see how she does here in Class 1 races like the La Brea and the Beholder Mile, so we’ll see how that turns out.”
McCarthy is also looking forward to the return of Strong contrast in the Eddie Logan Stakes on New Year’s Eve. In his final performance, the 2-year-old son of Caravaggio gave European champion 2-year-old colt Gstaad a terror in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1T), falling three-quarters of a length short at odds of 58-1.
“I thought the price was a little excessive,” McCarthy said, barely concealing his amusement. “He won the stakes here at Santa Anita quite handily, and I told everyone who asked how well he did when he entered the Breeders’ Cup.
“He has since put on some weight and is training as well as he was before the Breeders’ Cup,” he added. “If he’s the kind of horse we think he is, it’s a bit of a shame that we have to take him on the road, like many others. There’s no better place to train than California. But if you have to choose between running for $100,000 in your backyard or three, four or five times that amount somewhere else, you’re not doing anyone any favors.”
“All is well with journalism,” McCarthy declared. “He is in light training at Bridlewood Farm in Ocala. He will be back in training at Santa Anita in mid-January.”
If nothing else, journalism’s return to Southern California will be a welcome distraction from the grim January anniversary of the 2025 fires that turned the Los Angeles area into a two-headed inferno. As a major fire destroyed much of Pacific Palisades to the west, McCarthy and his family had to evacuate their home in the city of Altadena, east of downtown LA, as flames swept through beloved suburbs.
McCarthy’s house survived, although 6,000 were lost. It was only in recent months that they were able to return due to the severe smoke damage and polluted environment created by the massive cleanup process.
“It’s good to be back here,” McCarthy said. ‘But there isn’t much lazing around. Everything that was porous had to go: furniture, carpeting, the works. There are a few beach chairs, but not much else.”
But at least there was Christmas.
“And a real tree,” McCarthy said. “That happened come hell or high water.”
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