Santa Anita officials had to be smiling when 6,026 turned out on track Friday, most likely lured in part by the big pick-six carryover. It was the third Free Fridays promotion of the meeting and all three have drawn bigger crowds than a normal Wednesday and Thursday.
But imagine for a second how many more fans might have shown up if there had been bigger fields.
The first race — six horses
Second race — five horses
Third race — seven horses
Sixth race — six horses
Seventh race — six horses
The beat goes on with these short fields. I don’t know about you, but there’s nothing I dislike worse than trying to find value in a six-horse field. I’m waiting for these synthetic tracks to produce those full fields we were promised a while back.
