Turf Club Is Key Backer of Arcadia Racing Float

Los Angeles Turf Club, operator of Santa Anita Park, is underwriting most of the cost for this year’s Rose Parade float from Arcadia, which will depict horse racing at the track.

Arcadia officials said they immediately thought of the park when they learned that the Tournament of the Roses parade theme this year was going to be “Sports--A Quest for Excellence.”

Racing enthusiasts have gathered for 60 years at the Arcadia track.

“We could have had any float design we wanted,” said Joyce Macartney, secretary of Arcadia’s Tournament of Roses. “But being that it’s a sports theme and being that the racetrack is in Arcadia, it seemed like the perfect idea.”

The float will show five horses running down the Camino Real hillside turf course. Other sponsors include the Oak Tree Racing Assn., which conducts the fall racing season at Santa Anita, and the Arcadia Tournament of Roses Assn., which holds fund-raisers to build the city’s annual floats. This is Arcadia’s 30th year in the Pasadena parade, which will be held Jan. 2.