Charles H. Strub

Charles Henry "Doc" Strub (November 3, 1884 – March 28, 1958) was an American dentist and entrepreneur who built and owned Santa Anita Park racetrack in Arcadia, California, and was president and partner of the San Francisco Seals baseball club of the Pacific Coast League.

Since Santa Clara didn't offer a dentistry program, he transferred to the University of California at Berkeley to obtain his degree and where he also played on the varsity baseball team.

At Berkeley, he studied modern techniques with new pain-killing drugs and laughing gas so that pulling an abscessed tooth could be done painlessly—a great benefit to society, he thought.

[2] His chain of dentist offices provided him the opportunity to speculate in the burgeoning California real estate market, financing much of the rebuilding of the SF Business district after the earthquake, making Doc Strub a very wealthy man.

By the mid-1920s, the Seals had collected an estimated $500,000 in fees from these transactions and had earned the trio the title "Murder, Mayhem and Manslaughter, Incorporated" from Chicago Cubs Scout Jack Doyle.

A fan of thoroughbred horse racing, he decided to enter the business when California passed a parimutuel wagering bill in the early 1930s.

He had spent several months examining locations in the San Francisco Area and found none of them to his liking, including windy Candlestick Point.

He then connected with a group in Los Angeles that had identified 'Lucky' Baldwin's Rancho Santa Anita as a location, but needed increased financial backing.

In January 1934 Charles Strub, in partnership with Hollywood filmmaker Hal Roach and a group of investors, formed the Los Angeles Turf Club.

Created for the purpose of building the first race track in California, they opened Santa Anita Park in Arcadia on Christmas Day, 1934.

[8] As time progressed, Doc Strub used Santa Anita as a vehicle for other leisure-time investments including Lake Arrowhead and Pacific Ocean Park.

Only five horses have ever won all three legs of the Strub Series: Round Table (1958), Hillsdale (1959), Ancient Title (1974), Spectacular Bid (1980) and Precisionist (1985).

However, at this point, the baseball commissioner was Happy Chandler and he was concerned about the public appearance of having an owner who was also involved in gambling - albeit legitimate para-mutual horse racing.

He brought and donated to the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, the Bellefontaine estate which is now the Mayfield Senior School property in Pasadena, California.