Dr. Charles Henry Strub was a type of entrepreneurial businessmen seemingly able to succeeding in any possible enterprise. He began out small as a baseball participant of modest potential and as a dentist eager to embrace innovation. By the point of his demise, he had kickstarted the profession of baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, amassed a multimillion-dollar fortune, and remodeled Santa Anita Park into one in all horse racing’s best phases.
Strub definitely didn’t let the grass develop underneath his ft. Born in 1884, he was all the time on the slicing fringe of his enterprise pursuits. Good advertising and marketing was a cornerstone of his insurance policies. As a dentist is San Francisco, he was fast to undertake using anesthetics for extractions and continuously positioned substantial commercials within the San Francisco Examiner selling his costs and the significance of fine dental care.
However the sports activities world got here calling, and Strub answered the decision. Previously a minor league baseball participant, Strub reconnected to his roots in 1918 when he joined George Putnam and Charles Graham in buying the San Francisco Seals minor league baseball staff. Through the ensuing years, Strub performed an integral and profitable function in funneling up-and-coming gamers to main league groups.
“[Strub] demonstrated his Midas contact by promoting a succession of gamers to the majors for an estimated combination of $1,000,000, in an period when most such offers have been within the peanut class,” wrote Al Wolf within the Los Angeles Instances of March 29, 1958. Joe DiMaggio and “Lefty” Gomez have been simply two of the notable gamers bought by the San Francisco Seals throughout Strub’s tenure with the staff.
Tenacity was one other of Strub’s robust fits. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake worn out his dentistry observe, however he rebuilt. The 1929 inventory market crash that triggered the Nice Despair left Strub deeply in debt, however he quickly obtained again on his ft. Irrespective of how difficult the circumstances, Strub all the time appeared to bounce again stronger.
Whereas Strub was recovering from the inventory market crash, California legalized pari-mutuel wagering in 1933, paving the way in which for a return of horse racing on a significant scale. Although Strub had no earlier ties to the game, he sensed a possibility and commenced exploring choices for constructing a racetrack. With high-profile help from movie producer Hal Roach, singer/actor Bing Crosby, and businessman Leigh Battson, the Los Angeles Turf Membership emerged, establishing a lovely racing facility within the picturesque foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.
Santa Anita Park opened on Christmas Day 1934 with a crowd of 25,000 in attendance, and the inaugural meet was a rousing success. With Strub serving as vice chairman and basic supervisor, Santa Anita was all the time on the forefront of expertise and innovation in horse racing. Stopwatches for timing races? How archaic! Santa Anita put in the primary electrical timer in the US. Inserting judges trusting their eyes to find out the winner in picture finishes? Perish the thought! Santa Anita positioned their belief in a newfangled picture end digicam.
In “The Historical past of Thoroughbred Racing in America,” William H. P. Robertson recounts the opening of Santa Anita on Dec. 25, 1934. “Constructed on the location of the outdated Fortunate Baldwin property, with a Spanish-American architectural motif that harmonized with its surrounding, the flamboyant new plant boasted a grandstand with a seating capability of 8,000 plus a clubhouse that might accommodate 450. … On Christmas Eve, a pinto pony might be seen operating backwards and forwards throughout the end line, to check the brand new digicam above the press field, which was able to taking pictures that might be printed inside three minutes.”
The downhill turf course, constructed in 1953 and modeled after tracks in Europe, proved to be an immediate hit with horsemen and racing followers alike. Santa Anita was additionally among the many early adopters of the trendy beginning gate.
These improvements have been standard, however the true attraction was Santa Anita’s profitable purse construction. The monitor’s signature race, the Santa Anita Handicap, carried an annual purse of $100,000-added, the best ever provided for a race in the US. Day by day common purse distribution routinely ranked among the many highest within the nation.
Suffice to say, Santa Anita thrived underneath Strub’s administration.
“On energetic days at Santa Anita … a person who could correctly be termed its presiding genius, sits in an workplace on the roof of the grandstand and appears out over one of many best racing domains in the US,” penned the acclaimed author Damon Runyon in a column printed within the Miami Herald of Nov. 17, 1941. “He’s Dr. Charles H. Strub … whose administration is admittedly the rationale for the astonishing success of the operation … [Santa Anita] handles round $900,000 per day in mutuels and has continuously had million-dollar days. There has by no means been something prefer it in racing historical past.”
Runyon credited Strub with Santa Anita’s success in attracting main East Coast racing stables to race in California every winter, noting Strub made annual journeys to Saratoga in New York to advertise Santa Anita and drum up participation. Champion horses owned by Alfred Vanderbilt II and Calumet Farm have been quickly racing for main prizes on the Arcadia racetrack.
A coronary heart assault in 1945 prompted Strub to gradual his tempo, however solely a bit of. He remained concerned as government vice chairman and witnessed the glory of racing’s post-war increase, when purses skyrocketed and the annual foal crop almost doubled in lower than a decade. The Santa Anita Derby turned a $100,000 occasion in 1946, making it one of many richest races for 3-year-olds wherever within the nation. The Santa Anita Maturity for 4-year-olds was inaugurated with an an identical purse in 1948, whereas the $100,000 San Juan Capistrano Handicap turned the nation’s richest grass race when switched to the brand new turf course in 1954.
In March 1958, after greater than 20 years on the helm of Santa Anita, Strub handed away from the results of a stroke. He was mourned as a game-changing racing government who helped propel the game ahead with innovation and advertising and marketing. 5 years later, Santa Anita honored his reminiscence by renaming the Santa Anita Maturity in his honor. The Charles H. Strub Stakes – later simply the Strub Stakes – was held by way of 2014 and received by way of the years by such standout stars as Affirmed, Spectacular Bid, Alysheba, and Silver Attraction.
“The identify of Dr. Charles Strub will dwell without end within the annals of Thoroughbred racing,” wrote Paul Zimmerman within the Los Angeles Instances of March 29, 1958. “Actually, by way of the constructing and progressive operation of the Los Angeles Turf Membership, he was a mighty chief within the climb of racing from the horse-and-buggy class into a spot the place attendance has taken nationwide management over all different skilled sports activities.”
It’s simple to see why of us nicknamed him “Mr. Santa Anita.”
Enjoyable Details
- In keeping with Paul Zimmerman of the Los Angeles Instances, Strub performed a pivotal function within the profession of Seabiscuit, the fan favourite who prevailed within the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap. “The nice physician had seen the previous promoting plater run in Detroit and urged the acquisition on his outdated buddy [Charles Howard],” Zimmerman defined on March 29, 1958.
- Strub’s place because the face of racing at Santa Anita was such that the monitor was typically referred to by newspaper reporters as “Strubville.”
- Strub’s son, Robert Paul Strub, adopted in his father’s footsteps as a racing government and promotor. He served as president of Santa Anita and obtained an Eclipse Award of Advantage in 1992.
