ARCADIA — In the premiere of the California Crown on Saturday, Santa Anita Park’s bosses are taking an already big day of horse racing and trying to make it richer, fancier and hipper. It remains to be seen if the event’s combination of racing, entertainment and culinary attractions will succeed in its stated goal of drawing more glamorous crowds to the L.A.
area’s major racetrack. But from the day entries were taken for the $1 million, Grade I California Crown Stakes and four other stakes on the 10-race card, the event certainly has succeeded at drawing more good horses. The California Crown Stakes, given a bigger purse and new name after a decade as the $300,000 Awesome Again Stakes, attracted four Grade I-level winners in 8-5 morning-line favorite National Treasure, 2-1 Muth, 6-1 Senor Buscador and 6-1 Newgate, making it the highest-achieving field for this race in years.
It has two horses (5-1 Subsanador and Muth) coming off wins, the most since 2021. It has two (National Treasure and Subsanador) returning from engagements in New York and New Jersey, the closest thing the race has had to shippers from out-of-state since 2020. Contention runs deeper than usual, with five of the seven entrants assigned single-digit odds.
The picture is similarly encouraging for the other graded stakes on the first Saturday of the one-month Santa Anita fall season that opens at 1 p.m. Friday.
The $750,000, Grade II John Henry Turf Championship Stakes – up from $200,000 last year, w.
