Come wade into the California Crown on Saturday with this remnant of a dying generation, whose idea of a good time at the races used to be a beer for less than a fin and bets no more complicated than the Daily Double.
The day has been billed by 1/ST Racing as a new way to enjoy the sport, and everyone should be all for that, because the sport these days is being consumed more than enjoyed. In that spirit, Santa Anita Park has been given over to a high-end party planner, accompanied by guarantees of glitz overdose, and all things turned to eleven.
A glance at the California Crown “partners” in the endeavor reveals a certain target demographic. There is Dos Hombres mescal (“a unique blend of the finest Espadin agave, hand-selected from the hillsides of a small village in Oaxaca, Mexico”), Casa Azul, a blue agave tequila (it’s organic!), and Sir Davis American Whisky, courtesy of a company founded by someone named Beyonce Knowles-Carter, whoever that is.
California makes a decent champagne, even though it is required to be called sparkling wine. But this is the California Crown (emphasis on “crown”), so the event turned to the French label Armand de Brignac. You can buy a bottle of their Ace of Spade Gold Brut—with its “peach, apricot, and red berry aromas followed by crystalized citrus, orange blossom and hints of brioche”—for about $300. And if booze is not your bag, bring on the Stiiizy (pronounced any way you like), for “a refreshing and uplifting smoking experience, expertly crafted with a Sativa-dominant strain known for its energizing effects” delivered by Stiiizy’s “proprietary pod system.”
There will be food, lots of food, but for a price, and musical acts that will be on no one’s Spotify playlist at The Jockey Club. This reporter will be tempted, however, to take in the cool stylings of DJ/performer Gryffin, although I’m guessing he can’t hold a candle to the Chemical Brothers. And while Shaboozey is hardly the second coming of Waylon Jennings, the Nigerian-American from Virginia deserves his growing community of fans in both musical genres: country and western.
On the business side, an event like the California Crown figures to come in at a live crowd per capita of about a buck three-fitty. But that’s not important. The day offers a California racetrack a rare place in the national off-site betting spotlight, with a loaded program of 10 races, half of them stakes. For more traditional viewers at home, CNBC and Peacock will be on the job beginning at 3 p.m. (PDT) to the end of the day. And for those wondering what big brother NBC is doing that afternoon, it’s called the President’s Cup—America vs. The Part of the World That’s Not Europe.
Beyond a few encouraging anecdotes, the idea that a day like California Crown will make new racing fans has yet to be proven. Maybe that’s not even the point of the exercise. But for those California Crown patrons who may never grace a racetrack again until the next California Crown, the wish here is that they look up from the revelry long enough to appreciate the action.
If they do, they will see:
Flavien Prat, California’s former main man, who has taken his show to the East and Midwest and is currently challenging perennial top dog Irad Ortiz, Jr., for the national leadership in purses banked by their mounts. Prat rides eight of the 10 races Saturday, including all five stakes.
It goes without saying that he is alive in all five, but there I said it anyway. All eyes will be on Prat and morning line favorite National Treasure in the $1 million California Crown (G1), but look for him to come flying in the $750,000 Eddie D. Stakes (G2T) aboard Big Invasion for fellow Frenchman Christophe Clement.
The race is named for Eddie Delahoussaye, the Hall of Fame jockey who retired to his native Louisiana after winning 6,384 races, many of the best ones right there at Santa Anita. Only 15 other jockeys won as many as 6,000 races in the history of the sport, and none of them quite like Delahoussaye, who held his cards as close as a riverboat gambler. He won’t be in town for the event, which is too bad, but you can visit him in front of the National Museum of Racing in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. That’s him on The Bart, going toe-to-toe in a life-size bronze of the first Arlington Million against John Henry.
If Bob Baffert has a good day Saturday, so will Juan Hernandez. Nicknamed “The Captain,” Hernandez has taken sole control of the top of the local jockey standings for the past year and a half and fits the part. Affable, grateful, and tough to beat in a clinch, he will be aboard 3-year-old Muth in the California Crown against his elders and then Du Jour , an unlikely Baffert turf star, in the City of Hope Mile (G2T) that ends the day.
As far as that goes, Johannes is the horse to watch in the City of Hope. The son of Nyquist hasn’t lost a race in California since November of 2022. He enters this race as the West’s best miler, with the sights of trainer Tim Yakteen and owners Joseph and Debbie McCloskey squarely on the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1T) five weeks down the road at Del Mar.
Gold Phoenix (inside) narrowly defeats Dicey Mo Chara in the Del Mar Handicap at Del Mar
If there is a horse that deserves to win something on Saturday, just to get the karma in a little better balance, it’s the British gelding Dicey Mo Charra, who runs in the John Henry Turf Championship (G2T) for trainer Leonard Powell and the Cohen family of Red Barons Barn and Rancho Temescal.
After finishing second at 76-to-1 in the Eddie Read Stakes (G2T) at Del Mar in July, he came back last month to lead every step but the last in the Del Mar Handicap (G2T), losing a heartbreaker to defending champ Gold Phoenix . Dicey Mo Chara was beaten a neck in the John Henry two years ago when the race was worth $200,000. On Saturday, the purse is $750,000, although he will get the same dinner no matter what. But if things go right, there could be California sparkling wine as well.
