On October 7, 1969, opening day of the first Oak Tree Racing Association meet at Santa Anita Park, Tell defeated stablemate Pinjara in the inaugural stakes race, the Autumn Days Stakes. 6
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Doggedly (in Hirsch’s case, an apt word), Oak Tree came back to the racing board a second time, with a revised business plan, and with Strub’s approval it was granted 20 days of racing for October 1969. The meet was scheduled to open on a Friday, but the first race wasn’t run until the following Tuesday, October 7, because of a dispute with the union that represented the pari-mutuel clerks. As the talks dragged on, there was
sentiment to cancel the meet, but Bob Fluor, chairman of the CHRB, didn’t want to see Hirsch’s brainchild scuttled. On opening day, a crowd of 16,733 bet $1.4 million. Jimmy Durante, a friend of Hirsch’s, made the winner’s circle presentation with another star, Cliff Robertson, after Tell, ridden by Bill Shoemaker and trained by Charlie Whittingham for Libby Keck, won the Autumn Days Stakes. For the 20-day meet, Oak Tree’s crowds averaged a respectable 14,622. The annual dates were gradually extended to as many as 32, and never fewer than 26. “The Breeders’ Cup (hosted by Oak Tree in 1986, 1993, 2003, 2008 and 2009) was icing on the cake,” Hirsch said a couple of years before he died. “Thanks to a wonderful idea (by Lou Rowan and Don Valpredo), we’ve got the Cal Cup every year (since 1990) for our state-breds. We can be proud of the fact that we’ve helped the industry in so many ways…We even provided a several horse ambulances, one for Northern California and two for the South. The same (not-for-profit) concept has been working at Del Mar. You see some of the old established tracks around the country going by the wayside. Maybe the answer in some of those places, just to keep the game going, is to do what we did with Oak Tree.” Stability has helped Oak Tree endure. While Santa Anita has undergone wholesale changes in the executive suite in the last 15 years, the list of front-office leaders for Oak Tree hardly fills a page. Hirsch’s watch lasted until he died. Robbins, a charter member of the board, took over until 2011, when at age 90, he passed the baton to John Barr, a Thoroughbred breeder and owner in California for more than 40 years. “When John joined the Oak Tree Board in 1997, it was obvious from the first meeting that he was a valued addition,” said Chillingworth At Oak Tree, the nutsand-bolts operator of the association is the executive vice president. Joe Harper, before he moved on to Del Mar, is considered the first, but Harper told an interviewer, Hank Wesch, that Frank Tours actually preceded him and then, after a couple of years, recommended Harper OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION