VENTURA : Racing Fans Pack Club on Opening Day

Frantically clutching racing forms, stamping their feet and screaming for their favorite horses, more than 1,600 racing fans turned out Wednesday for the grand opening of the Derby Club at the Ventura County Fairgrounds.

Waiting in a line that snaked well into the fairgrounds parking lot, the crowd practically stampeded--after a brief ribbon-cutting ceremony--into the new $5.7-million two-story facility that features more than 200 satellite-fed televisions that showed races from Santa Anita Park in Arcadia and from Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

“I won! I won!” shouted Dave Ware of Simi Valley, who made an easy $163 from the first race at Santa Anita.

“This place is lucky for me,” said Ware, 47, as he carefully pocketed his winning ticket. “I think it’s a comfortable place to watch the races. If my luck keeps up, I’ll definitely be back.”

The new 36,500-square-foot off-track wagering facility replaces the decades-old McBride Building.

“We think the building offers something for everyone--ranging from those who want to come in and quickly put some bets down to those who want to enjoy a more leisurely experience with full table service,” said fairgrounds spokeswoman Teri Raley.

Admission fees are $4 to $12.

Raley said that aside from the club’s kitchen staff being overtaxed by the crush of patrons, no major problems arose during the first full day of operations.

On each level, automatic betting machines--functioning like bank ATMs--stood next to dozens of betting windows where clerks busily exchanged money for tickets and vice versa.

Legendary jockey Johnny Longden, who captured horse racing’s Triple Crown by winning the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness and Belmont stakes in 1943 aboard Count Fleet, helped fair officials open the new wagering facility.

Also helping was famed actor Mickey Rooney, himself a former race horse owner and longtime racing enthusiast.

“This place is a Taj Mahal,” said Rooney, a Westlake Village resident. “I think this will be good for the sport. This is a fine addition to the county.”

Jayme Alvey, 33, of Westlake Village said the new facility makes for a much more enjoyable wagering experience than the stuffy, ramshackle McBride Building.

“I’ll still go to Santa Anita for the big races, but this place is so nice that I’ll probably come here more often,” said Alvey, a sales representative.

More than $50 million was bet at the Ventura facility in 1994, with the local fair district keeping about 2% of that revenue, Raley said.