Santa Anita Season Is Off and Running

Some of Santa Anita Park’s executives were noticeably absent from the festivities on Saturday opening the track’s 56th season of thoroughbred racing.

They were overseeing the repair of new betting computers that had been installed the night before. President Cliff Goodrich was seen only briefly among the guests in the Directors Room.

Those in the know were calling the computer glitches--they simply weren’t working--”catastrophic” in terms of loss to Santa Anita.

The familiar runners in the Directors Room were taking bets by pencil and rushing them downstairs, the time-honored procedure that has been enhanced in recent years by computers.

Nevertheless, the sunny day got kudos, the San Gabriel mountains were nicely purple, and the mood was upbeat. At Table 2, Los Angeles Turf Club Chairman and CEO Robert P. Strub and his wife, Betty, who host the annual luncheon, held court and predicted a happy season of 84 days of racing.

Breeders John and Betty Mabee were up from San Diego to see their horses--Likeable Style, ridden by Gary Stevens, and Star of the Eagle, ridden by Laffit Pincay Jr.--take honors.

That brought congratulations from the table with Chuck and Pat Bakaly and Tom and Carol Mullaney. And Stephen and Sally Keller’s handsome offspring--Steve, Sarah and Rick--dropped in with friends to check out the decor of the Directors Room and to greet their parents’ friends.

Warren and Alyce Williamson were glued to binoculars at the rail for each race. Mary and Arthur Crowe, George and Maggie Jagels and Frank and Margarita Kanne were also eager observers.

At Table 3, Edward and Hannah Carter, Earle and Marion Jorgensen and Jean Smith were among those enjoying some winning bets. Carl McGinnis, Anne Brophy and Felix and Barbara McGinnis at Table 1 probably had the best view of the track.

Also enjoying a feast of hors d’oeuvres, hot main courses and desserts of wicked chocolate were the Strubs’ sons and daughters-in-law, newlyweds John and Pattie and older son Bob and wife Camie.

Oak Tree racing season’s chief, Clement Hirsch, and his wife, Lynn, came up from Newport Beach for the affair. There, too, were Donna and Richard Cohen, who were planning a birthday luncheon this week at the track for her father, Jack Frost.

The night before, Martha Chandler had entertained a huge family clan for Christmas night dinner at her home, but she was a spirited center of activity at Santa Anita, along with Violeta and Bill Dougherty, Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block, Karen Goodrich, Mary and Philip Hawley, Dolores and Karl Samuelian, Lotsie Webster and Andrea and John Van de Kamp, who consistently proved that some people really do win at the races.

PAST PERFECT: The Christmas Eve soiree hosted by Art and Julie Pizzinat at their home in San Marino combined generations, including their handsome children--Victoria, Chris and wife Ann, Sheldon and Jason.

The rooms burst with laughter and conviviality as guests dropped by on their way to family dinners. Among them: Dave and Holly Davis, Don and Suzy Crowell, Lois and Chris Madison and Melinda Winston, cuddling her new grandbaby, Alexis Alfieri.

KEEPING UP: In the holiday rush, the UCLA Institute of Archaeology gathered archeologists and friends to honor Dr. Franklin D. Murphy and Lloyd E. Cotsen at a dinner at Royce Hall. The event was held in conjunction with the recent publication of a book on the rock art of Easter Island.

Dr. Murphy, former UCLA chancellor and chairman emeritus of Times Mirror Co., owner of The Los Angeles Times, was honored for his original support of the establishment of the archive for rock art at UCLA.

Cotsen, chairman and CEO of the Neutrogena Corp., recently provided an endowment for the publications program of the Institute of Archaeology. The new Jo Anne Stolaroff Cotsen Imprint and Prize honors his late wife.

HOLIDAY GLAMOUR: Everything the Friends of Robinson Gardens does seems to be with panache. Earlier this month, members hosted the children of the Eras Center for luncheon with Santa Claus in the Beverly Hills gardens.

Just before Christmas, members treated themselves to a gala at the spectacular hilltop estate of Dennis Tito and Donna Mariash.

In the tradition of those parties, which made the late Virginia Robinson one of the acclaimed hostesses of Los Angeles from the ‘20s to the ‘60s, the Friends lavished a night of elegance on members who have worked hard this year on a bundle of projects.

Directing it all: president Lois Howard, Mary Robin Redd, Lynda Stiller and Gail Andrews.

DECEMBER SCENE: Marc and Jane Nathanson (he’s CEO and founder of Falcon Cable TV) hosted cocktails and dinner at their West Los Angeles home to celebrate the Museum of Contemporary Art’s exhibit, “Hand-Painted Pop: American Art in Transition, 1955-62.”

Among guests: Robert Rauschenberg, Danna and Ed Ruscha, Jonathan and Susan Dolgen, Beatrice and Phil Gersh, Joan and John Hotchkis, MOCA director Richard and Betty Koshalek and Rose Tarlow.

KUDOS: To Hollywood Park Turf Club, distributing its charity funds Dec. 23 at a buffet in the Gold Cup Room. . . . To celebrities Sarah Purcell and Mel Johnson, representing Los Angeles chapters of Big Sisters and Big Brothers and leading 10 local children on a holiday shopping trip to the Broadway with American Express gift checks. . . . To the volunteers who coordinated collection of $10,000 for a holiday party for children in the care of the Children’s Bureau of Southern California.