Big Booster, a 7-1 longshot, won the Grade II, $250,000 San Juan Capistrano Handicap on closing day at Santa Anita on Sunday, and proponents of keeping a synthetic track at the Arcadia facility also got a big boost.
Frank Stronach, chairman of Magna Entertainment, which owns Santa Anita, flew in from his home base in Toronto to meet with 10 trainers and then a like number of owners at the track Sunday.
Afterward, he said, "I personally prefer dirt, but the majority of the horsemen I met with like synthetic. So I figure if we are this far into it, we should give a synthetic track another year or two, then make a change if we need to."
Ron Charles, Santa Anita president, emphasized a decision has not been made on how to proceed. "We still have a lot of testing to do," he said.
Ray Bell, one of the trainers who met with Stronach, said, "It was nine to one for synthetic."
Bell did not say which trainer voted against it, but Bruce Headley, a strong proponent for dirt, was also in the meeting.
Stronach was gathering opinions everywhere he could. He was having lunch in FrontRunner restaurant with Charles and horseman Gary Dimkich when Dimkich, before the fifth race, suggested they go down to the winner's circle where Rosie Ybarra was going to be honored as employee of the meet.
Ybarra, a food server known as the "diva" of Clocker's Corner and an ambassador for horse racing, has worked at the track for 29 years. After Stronach surprised Ybarra by presenting the award, she called it "the best day of my life."
But before he presented the award, he asked veteran jockey Alex Solis, "Dirt or synthetic?"
Said Solis: "I prefer synthetic because I feel safer on it."
Charles, without offering specific numbers, said the number of injuries and fatalities were way down from a year ago.
Santa Anita installed its new synthetic track at a cost of nearly $11 million last summer. A drainage problem with the track and unusually heavy rain this winter caused Santa Anita to lose an unprecedented 11 race days, although three of those were made up.
Australian synthetic track expert Ian Pearse was brought in and figured out how to fix the drainage problem, which was done over a four-day period. It was clear sailing after that.
Pearse was back at Santa Anita on Sunday and met with Stronach. During a half-hour session, he explained what further repairs he would like to do on the track before the opening of the Oak Tree meet there Sept. 24.
