The Santa Anita Park 2024 Autumn Meet begins Sept. 27, and the premier fall season of SoCal racing and wagering is set to offer prime betting opportunities throughout its 16-day meet that continues through Oct. 27.
In addition to the extensive wagering menu that horseplayers have come to expect at Santa Anita, bettors will find several revisions and additions to the pari-mutuel offerings at the Autumn meet. Many of these plentiful daily wagering options will feature player-friendly 15% takeout.
New to the Santa Anita wagering menu this year is a $5 minimum Late Daily Double (last two races) and a $3 Late Pick 3 on the day’s last three races, both bets with 15% takeout.
More bets like the All-Turf Pick 3 will be offered at a low 15% takeout, while the daily Early Pick 5 on the first five races of the day will have an even lower 14% takeout with a .50-cent minimum denomination.
Also, for the first time at a Santa Anita fall meeting, the track will combine forces with Gulfstream Park to offer a $1 Coast-to-Coast Pick 5 on Saturdays and Sundays with yet another player-friendly 15% takeout.
Southern California has long been the epicenter of the Pick 6 since its inception in the early 1980s. Santa Anita will make a lot of Pick 6 players happy by offering a “traditional” $2 daily Pick 6 on the last six races. For decades, the Pick 6 had been a $2 minimum wager at Santa Anita and other SoCal tracks, but in recent years the Pick 6 has been tinkered with in various ways, including making it a $1 base denomination bet.
The $2 Pick 6 will continue to pay out 70% of each day’s pool to winning tickets, with the remaining 30 percent going to consolation payouts. If nobody picks all six winners, 70% of the pool will carry over to the next race day with a mandatory payout on the last day of the meet.
Santa Anita will continue to offer the 50-cent Late Pick 5 as well as $1 exactas, $2 rolling Daily Doubles, an early 50-cent Pick 4, and 10-cent superfectas on all races with a minimum of six horses. There will be a single daily $1 Super Hi 5 offered on the final race of the day.
In addition to all of the above, the inaugural California Crown card during opening weekend of the meet will offer its own additional special wagering menu on the Sept. 28 program, including two-day wagers.
The California Crown Stakes day wagering menu will include the California Crown All-Stakes Pick 5 with a $1 denomination and a low 15% takeout combining the day’s five stakes races. There will also be a California Crown All-Turf Stakes Pick 4 with a 15% takeout and a $2 minimum that hooks up the undercard stakes on a single bet.
Planned two-day wagers that will combine races on Saturday, Sept. 28, along with Santa Anita races on Sunday, Sept. 29 – all with a low 15% takeout – will include a pair of special $5 Daily Doubles with Saturday’s California Crown Eddie D Stakes Presented by FanDuel paired with Sunday’s Santa Anita Sprint Championship Stakes presented by Estrella Jalisco and another pairing Saturday’s California Crown Stakes with the Zenyatta Stakes on Sunday.
There also will be a $2 Two-Day All-Stakes Pick 4 combining the Saturday Sept. 28 California Crown John Henry Turf Championship Stakes presented by 1/ST BET and California Crown Stakes with Sunday’s Santa Anita Sprint Championship and Zenyatta Stakes. Also look for a $1 Two-Day All-Stakes Pick 6 combining four races on Saturday with the two stakes from Sunday, Sept. 29.
