The Oak Tree Racing Association stands poised and ready to begin its 41st fall season beginning Sept. 30 and ending Nov. 8. With the two-day Breeders’ Cup World Championships scheduled to be staged for an unprecedented second consecutive year on Nov. 6 and 7, Oak Tree stands tall as the lights of the racing world will once again be focused on one of the world’s most prestigious meets. Dating back to its inception in 1969, Oak Tree at Santa Anita has afforded fans and horsemen world-class Thoroughbred action at America’s most beautiful racing venue.

With an eye trained on the Breeders’ Cup, Oak Tree will break from the gate running, beginning with the Gr. III, $100,000 Morvich Handicap on opening day. Additionally, Oak Tree will front-load California Cup XX on the first Saturday of the meet, Oct. 3.

“With the Breeders’ Cup set for closing weekend, we wanted to frontload the Cal Cup in order to let it stand alone and also to encourage the connections of any qualifying Cal-bred to consider and prepare for what is really the Super Bowl of our business,” said Oak Tree Executive Vice President and Director Sherwood Chillingworth. “The Cal Cup means a great deal to all of us here at Oak Tree and to fans and horsemen throughout the state. We’re confident it will continue to be a very important date on the racing calendar.”

Last year’s Cal Cup, run on Sunday, Oct. 5, attracted an on-track crowd of 20,946 and was highlighted by a stirring performance from Great Friends Stable’s Mr. Chairman, who took the $250,000 Cal Cup Classic under Michael Baze for trainer Doug O’Neill. Following this year’s Cal Cup, Oak Tree will offer eight Breeders’ Cup prep races over three days, beginning Sunday, Oct. 4, and on Oct. 10 and 11.

“As we did last year, we want to once again make sure that opportunities will exist for everyone to make their final Breeders’ Cup preparations here at Oak Tree,” said Chillingworth.

A sluggish local and national economy took its toll on the 2008 Oak Tree meeting, as on-track attendance (not counting the two day Breeders’ Cup) dipped by two percent and on-track mutuel handle declined by 14 percent. However, the meet ended strongly as Oak Tree hosted the Breeders’ Cup World Championships for the fourth time, dating back to 1986, on Friday, Oct. 24 and Saturday, Oct. 25. On-track attendance on Friday was 31,257, and it reached 51,331 on Saturday. All-sources handle on Friday was $47,863,774, and on Saturday all-sources handle reached $107,610,778.

“By all accounts, Breeders’ Cup 25 was a tremendous ‘shot in the arm’ for this sport and for Oak Tree at Santa Anita,” said Chillingworth. “The Pro-Ride synthetic main track performed beautifully and we did not have a single injury in the 21 races we ran over those two days.

“Operationally, things went very well and we are extremely proud of the way our employees performed on racing’s biggest stage. Along with that, we once again demonstrated to a national audience that Oak Tree at Santa Anita is, in our opinion, the number-one racing venue in the world.”

The most impressive equine performance of the meet was unarguably the undefeated Zenyatta’s stirring victory in the Gr. I Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic. Owned by Jerry and Ann Moss and trained by John Shirreffs, the 4-year-old filly by Street Cry crushed seven other rivals under regular rider Mike Smith, completing 1 1/8 miles in 1:46.85 while winning by 1 1/2 lengths. Coupled with her 3 1/2 length victory in the Gr. I Lady’s Secret on Sept. 27, Zenyatta easily won Horse-of-the-Meet honors en route to an Eclipse Award as 2008’s champion filly or mare.

Peruvian sensation Rafael Bejarano was Oak Tree’s leading jockey, with 30 wins. This was the 26-year-old jockey’s fourth consecutive major-meet title in Southern California. John Sadler won his third consecutive Southern California major-meet title, topping the Oak Tree trainer standings with 12 wins.

Leading stakes winning honors went to jockeys Garrett Gomez and Mike Smith with seven wins each and to trainers Christopher Paasch and Todd Pletcher, with three wins apiece.

Leading owner honors, as determined by money won, went to HRH Princess Haya of Jordan, with earnings of $3,310,200. Her Raven’s Pass took the $5-million Breeders’ Cup Classic, and her Donativum took the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.

Oak Tree’s leading owner by races won, went to Everest Stables, Inc. and Barber and Barber, who each had four wins.