Focus shifts back to track surface after Santa Anita, horsemen reach accord on Lasix

ARCADIA, Calif. – Even while California racing gained clarity with the weekend announcement that Santa Anita would reopen on March 29, headwinds will continue.

On Sunday at Santa Anita, officials and horsemen expressed satisfaction at medication and safety reforms agreed to by track owner The Stronach Group and the Thoroughbred Owners of California. Those include a gradual phase-out of race-day Lasix instead of the initial proposal of an outright ban.

The agreement between TSG and the TOC, which includes a host of medication reforms and curtailed use of the whip, requires approval by the California Horse Racing Board at its meeting on March 28. Officials are all but certain the CHRB will sanction the agreement and that racing will resume March 29 at Santa Anita.

Golden Gate Fields, which postponed entries for its cards this coming Thursday and Friday, was to draw entries Sunday for racing on Thursday. Golden Gate will draw entries on Tuesday for racing Friday. The medication reforms at Golden Gate go into effect March 29. Golden Gate postponed its draws during TSG and TOC negotiations.

So, racing will continue in California, which typically would qualify as a feel-good scenario. Now, focus returns to the initial reason for the suspension of Santa Anita racing – 22 equine fatalities since Dec. 26 and a complete reevaluation and inspection of the main track. Tim Ritvo, TSG chief operating officer, acknowledged the uncertain atmosphere.

“I don’t know how you feel good about anything, with this whole thing we went through,” Ritvo said Sunday morning at Clocker’s Corner. “Hopefully, it’s a move forward, and the horse wins. We put protocols and procedures in place to protect the horse. We’ll look at ourselves and make sure we do things a little better.”

The consensus among trainers and riders is that the main track is safe, even though a fatality occurred March 14 after the main track reopened for training just days earlier. That is the only known major incident.

Workout times Sunday were on the slow side as 116 horses posted timed works without apparent issues, including works by graded stakes winners Marley’s Freedom (six furlongs, 1:12.80) and Selcourt (five furlongs, 1:00.20).

Marley’s Freedom and Selcourt both were nominated to the Grade 1 Beholder Mile, a one-mile race for fillies and mares that is among five stakes postponed from the March 22-24 weekend until the resumption of racing the weekend of March 29-31.

Racing secretary Steve Lym updated the stakes schedule to reflect the postponement. The March 29 “reopening” card will feature the rescheduled Grade 2 San Luis Rey Stakes. The March 30 card will include the rescheduled Beholder Mile, Grade 2 San Carlos, and Grade 3 San Simeon. The five-stakes card also will include the Grade 1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile and Grade 2 Santa Ana Stakes.

The March 31 card will include the rescheduled $100,000 Sensational Star, along with the $100,000 Irish O’Brien Stakes and $75,000 Santana Mile.

Lym said the condition book dated March 22 through April 7 stays in effect. There will not be a new book. Races in the book for the canceled March 22-24 dates will return as “extras,” while races in the book for March 29 will be the races used for that day.

The stakes schedule from April 6 forward remains unchanged. The April 6 card will include three Grade 1’s – the Santa Anita Derby, Santa Anita Oaks, and Santa Anita Handicap. Officials said early this week that April 6 is a mandatory payout day in the Rainbow 6. The jackpot pool currently stands at $601,541.

The resumption of racing on March 29 incorporates medication reforms reported earlier and includes a 50 percent reduction in the permissible Lasix dose and curtailed use of the whip. Limitations on whip use – now for corrective safety measures only – already went into effect for morning workouts at Santa Anita and Golden Gate Fields.

Whip restrictions for races go into effect at both tracks beginning March 29. The Golden Gate races this Thursday through Sunday will be under previously established guidelines.