As Southern California enters its stretch run of horse racing for the year, slight signs of optimism have surfaced as Santa Anita gets ready to start its 18-day Autumn racing season Friday.
The Santa Anita meeting comes on the heels of a successful summer meet at Del Mar where field size and mutuel handle were up. The two metrics are tied together because bigger field sizes increase the money bet on the races.
Santa Anita does have a built-in disadvantage compared with Del Mar when it comes to field size because there is no racing at Golden Gate Fields during most of the Del Mar meeting and some of those horses come south.