The Popularity of Horse Racing in America
The popularity of horse racing in the United States as a whole suggests that it is more than a marginal phase of the American civilization.
It is, in general, an integral part of the American culture and it rests upon potent sanctions. Business is itself a species of gambling; business negotiations are contests backed by wagers; investments are gamblers on unpredictable future events.
On the psychological side, racing represents an artificial crisis which imparts fresh excitement to jaded spirits.
'It's a shot in the arm,' one of Hollywood's leading horse addicts explained. 'It's the only thing that can take my mind off my troubles. I tried golf, but I'd be thinking of my work in the middle of a stroke. I tried Bridge, but my doctor advised me to get more sleep and get out in the open. Horse races are beyond compare.'
Racing is more than a recreation in Hollywood; it is a new show window in which screen celebrities can appear and in which they can social favor.
Horses and aristocracy go hand in hand; the cultivated affection for thoroughbreds is allied to the struggle for prestige.
Isabel Dodge Sloane, like certain movie magnates, was frightened of horses and unable to ride but she nevertheless maintained a magnificent stable, hoping to usurp the crown of Mrs. Payne Whitney as the first lady of the turf of the Republic.
And Oliver Belmont, one of the social lions of his day, considered his stables the most important part of his estate.
At the races, as at the opera, those who attend to see also attend to be seen. At Santa Anita, which has been expertly publicized, much of the populace comes to see the starts as well as the horses.
Hollywood's actors, in turn, can scarcely resist the conspicuousness of the setting.
Once the stars and producers have, by their patronage, put the seal of station on racing as a top-drawer avocation, attention is focused, the initiative process begins to operate, and soon half of the studios are making hopeful phone calls to bookies.
The races bring a distinguished and cosmopolitan set to Hollywood, and this has strengthened the ties between Hollywood and the scions of the East.
The Whitneys, du Ponts, Vanderbilts, and Donahues come to California for the racing season, and participate in the social gaieties of the circles which revolve around the turf.
The Los Angeles Turf Club Ball, which closes the Santa Anita 'meeting' each year, is a brilliant fete which compares favorably to the more glittering social events of the nation; it is a meeting ground for Hollywood, Pasadena, and Southampton.