Frank Stronach has completed the purchase of San Luis Rey Downs Training Center in Bonsall, Calif., for $6.3 million. The training center, located about 100 miles south of Santa Anita, includes 552 stalls, a one-mile track with a 12-stall starting gate, a three-eighths mile jogging track, and 110 paddocks. By buying the financially-plagued training facility, Stronach hopes to alleviate some of the training congestion at Santa Anita.
The Canadian based horseman has also re-evaluated some of his renovation plans for Santa Anita. In a meeting with about 300 horsemen and track employees before the close of the Santa Anita meeting in April, Stronach explained opponents of the master plan influenced him to change his mind about doing away with the unique hillside turf course and from moving the walking ring from the paddock gardens to an area in front of the grandstand. "You’ve got to listen," he said in a Thoroughbred Times interview.
Now, the primary components of the initial phase of the construction will be the building of new barns on the site of the northern parking lot near the hillside course, new dormitories for backstretch workers, and a state-of-the-art clubhouse dining room. Additional plans call for dressing up both the walking ring and trackside apron with major landscaping projects, and a European-style galloping area near the hillside turf course.
Stronach added that implementation of future phases will not interrupt any live racing at the Arcadia, Calif., track, meaning that the Oak Tree meeting and California Cup in the year 2000 will not be seriously impacted by the construction.