It will go down in history books as 490 participants attempt breaking the Guinness World Records largest beer tasting at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia on Saturday.

Participants who attended this event were invited through Facebook and if they were yelp elite status members they received an invitation through the website.

“It was originally open to the public on Facebook and yelp elite RSVP’s but we received an overwhelming response and had to end RSVP’s on Thursday,” said Diana Cheng, marketing assistant at Santa Anita Park.

According to Guinness World Records the last largest beer tasting record was broken by 322 participants at the Oast House bar and restaurant in the United Kingdom in August 2013.

Admission and beers are free to all participants. It included: seating near the race track, a commemorative beer glass and three beer tastings. The beer tasting selection consisted of: shock top chocolate wheat, shock top Belgian white and Stella Artois.

“I thought that the event was exciting. I had never been apart of any record setting attempt so to hear that we were able to break the previous record for the largest beer tasting was great,” said Joseph De Jesus, Lakewood resident and participant.

John kopcha, event organizer at Santa Anita park and Cheng brought the idea to Katie Abbott, director of interactive marketing of the racetrack to plan this event and decided to partner with yelp.

It took three weeks of planning with a budget of $10,000. A cicerone from Dog Haus Biergarten made a special appearance.

“Here at Santa Anita park, we are always looking for new ways to engage our audience of race horsing fans,” Abbott said. “This event is a fun and interactive idea to allow old and new fans feel like they’re part of the Santa Anita family.”

“We wanted to reach 1,000 people but the main goal was to put out a fun event for everyone and that’s what happened,” Cheng said.

For the event to go into the Guinness World Records it needs to initially be approved by a process that it is currently undergoing. To see proof of the event Guinness World Records requires video footage, photographs and specific guidelines to be met in order to be recognized.

Once Guinness World Records reviews this they will send an email to all participants with a code to retrieve a certificate that states they were apart of this event.

“Although our hopes are to shatter the current world record, our main goal is to host an out-of-the-box event where all guests leave with a memorable experience,” Kopcha said.

Stewards and witnesses were hired to confirm the event. Stewards counted the amount of people that attended and witnesses viewed the event to confirm back to Guinness world records.

Tickets for future events can be viewed at www.santanita.com

The Santa Anita Park is located at 285 W. Hunting Dr. Arcadia 91007.