A Thoroughbred Operation

WHEN ZENYATTA shot from the back of the pack to the lead in the final stretch to claim her 13th straight win in last month's Lady's Secret Stakes, the thousands of fans in the stands at Santa Anita Park, in Arcadia, Calif., weren't the only ones cheering. Underneath the grandstand, with the sound of a Goss Community web press churning away behind them, the crew of Santa Anita's in-plant was crowded around a TV monitor, watching the $300,000, nail-biter of a race unfold.

"It's part of being here," explains Candace Coder-Chew, director of Santa Anita's 20-employee Print & Graphics operation, located 14 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Besides, she adds, a two-minute break isn't much to ask when the shop is busy printing and stitching up to 60,000 race programs a day, working at a pace nearly as fast as the one on the track outside.

Each day of the racing season, the in-plant must produce all 72 to 96 pages of the next day's program and have it on the sellers' stands by 3:30 p.m., so that eager betters can grab copies before they leave the track.

"It's a very quick industry," Coder-Chew says. The need for such fast turnaround is one of the main reasons a prominent racetrack like Santa Anita Park, owned by Magna Entertainment Corp., operates an in-plant. And though other tracks have some digital printing equipment, Santa Anita is unique for having full web and sheetfed printing capabilities.

Two In-plants in One

The park actually operates two separate print shops beneath its stands. One has a three-unit Goss Community web press—which is used to print the programs—along with assorted plate-making, folding and stitching equipment. The other shop—about a half mile away, but still below the stands—runs a six-color Komori L628 and a two-color Ryobi 3302, plus folders, stitchers, cutters and other bindery equipment. Both shops are overseen by Print Shop Manager Andy Didier.

A sign shop houses four 44˝ Epson Stylus Pros and a Graphtec cutting plotter for producing posters, vinyl banners, trade show displays and menu boards for all of the park's food stands. It is supervised by Graphic Production Manager Darrin Munnerlyn, who is also in charge of prepress and project coordination.

There's also a graphic design studio, where programs, media guides, wall calendars, condition books, newsletters and much more are designed—not just for Santa Anita but for several other racetracks. The in-plant prints for the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, near San Diego, Fairplex Park, about a half hour east, Golden Gate Fields, up in Berkeley, and others. To transport jobs up to Berkeley, the in-plant takes advantage of the horse vans that move thoroughbreds up and down the coast daily. The shop loads Golden Gate's programs and condition books into the vans.

"It works out really well," Coder-Chew says.

The in-plant has also provided design and printing for the Preakness Stakes, in Maryland. And perhaps its most high-profile printing has been for the world-renown Breeders' Cup World Championships, recognized as the ultimate test of a thoroughbred's talent and ability. Each race is worth at least $1 million. The event took place at Santa Anita earlier this month for the second consecutive year.

Champing at the Bit for Printing

The reason all these parks turn to the in-plant for their printing, Coder-Chew contends, is simple: "They don't want to wait," she says. They know that the in-plant understands the racing business and is set up to produce fast-turnaround jobs like programs.

"When you enter a horse into a race, it's two days before he runs, so there's not a lot of time to get all this information out to the public," Coder-Chew explains.

Race details are finalized only the day before they take place. That information must first go through Equibase, the racing industry's official information and statistics keeper, before being sent to the in-plant's designers. They then have to lay out the program in time for the first press run at 11:30 a.m. Two hours later the second run starts. Eight-page color covers and four-page color inserts are printed ahead of time on the Komori in the other facility. They are matched up with the inside pages, stitched and delivered to the sellers' stands by 3:30 p.m., as well as to 17 off-track betting sites by day's end. And this happens every day, to the tune of more than 2.5 million programs a year.

At the same time, the in-plant is printing programs for the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club with an even tighter deadline.

"We have programs out the door by 2:30," Coder-Chew says, to ensure they have time to fight L.A. traffic and reach the San Diego area by 4:30.

Though programs are the shop's biggest job, it produces many other items, including brochures, menus, magazines, post cards and fine art prints. The in-plant prints two full-color media guides a year, 100 and 200 pages, respectively. It also designs and prints a wall calendar, with high-quality photos taken by staff photographers. Coder-Chew considers it one of the shop's most important jobs, due to its visibility.

She is currently undertaking an even more exquisite and complicated job: a 208-page coffee table book celebrating the park's 75th anniversary. The in-plant will print 2,000 copies of the 9x13˝, case-bound photo book, some of which will be presented to the owners of winning horses next year. That the in-plant was chosen to print such a high-profile work of art says a lot about how much the park values the shop.

A California Treasure

Santa Anita Park is the oldest racetrack in Southern California. Its 1,100-foot-long Art Deco-style grandstand offers fans a picturesque view, with the San Gabriel Mountains rising behind the mile-long track. Horse racing fans may be interested to know that Santa Anita initiated some of the practices that are now standard in thoroughbred racing, such as the use of starting gates and photo finishes for every race.

Though racing at Santa Anita was suspended just eight years after it opened due to World War II—and the park spent a dark two years as a Japanese American internment center—it rebounded in grand style, and is today the home of numerous prestigious races.

Coder-Chew started working at Santa Anita 161⁄2 years ago. A horse lover since childhood, she grew up riding at her parents' boarding stable. Though she had initially intended to study veterinary medicine, her interest in graphic design soon pulled her in that direction.

When she was offered the chance to develop the graphics program at Santa Anita Park and run events at the track, it seemed the perfect job for a horse-loving graphic artist. An added bonus was the fact that her husband, Mark, worked there too, as a trainer.

"My husband trains thoroughbreds on the back side here, and I print on the front side, so it works out pretty well," she says.

At first she designed ads and display graphics by herself. Eventually she was able to hire an assistant and take on more work.

The Creation of an In-plant

When a new owner purchased the park in 1998 and began looking for economies of scale, attention was focused on the on-site print shop that was being run by an outside contractor and his staff. The park realized that it could save money and get more work done by running the shop itself. Coder-Chew was placed in charge, most of the existing staff was hired and all equipment not already owned by Santa Anita was purchased. Coder-Chew admits the staff was a bit wary of her at first.

"It was difficult the first couple of years," she recalls. She hired a shop supervisor, upgraded some of the technology and eliminated some money-losing jobs.

"The first year we took over that print shop, we saved $600,000," she reports. "We just made it more efficient."

Some of this money was reinvested in the shop, resulting in the purchase of the sheetfed presses.

"They wanted us to be able to take more of our printing in-house," she says. Not only did the in-plant do that, but it started printing for other racetracks. Today, she says, the in-plant is doing very well.

"We average about $1 million profit every year," she says.

Even the current recession has not slowed business much.

"We've been lucky at Santa Anita because we are one of the best racetracks in the world," she says. "We haven't seen a huge decline in attendance." She does concede, though, that people are betting less than in the past.

Where's the Digital Printing?

One thing missing from this in-plant is digital printing, the Epson sign printers aside. Coder-Chew says she doesn't see the need right now; the shop's current long-run applications make offset a more appropriate method.

"We are so fast with our Komori, and it's relatively inexpensive to run," she says. And though she doesn't rule out digital printing equipment in the future, the shop is currently keeping its capital expenses to a minimum until the economy improves. For now, the in-plant provides variable data printing—such as a personalized letter to accompany the park's newsletter—by having its mailing house produce it.

This doesn't mean the shop has stopped looking for new opportunities. Last year the in-plant took over the printing of tickets and added a Graphic Whizard FinishMaster perforating/scoring unit. It paid for itself in one month with the new business it brought in, Coder-Chew says.

"We're just trying to be as cost effective and efficient as possible, and to be able to service all of the entities that we service as best we can—and save them as much money as we possibly can," she says.

Because her staff does that so well, she has no problem with them visiting the betting windows on their lunch breaks and watching the occasional big race on the pressroom monitor. With all the excitement going on around them every day, it's only natural that they would want to get into the spirit.

"Santa Anita is such a grand old track," she concludes, "and there's so much history and so much pride in this place that you want to be part of it."