Horses to start working again on main track Wednesday
ARCADIA, Calif. – The main track at Santa Anita reopened to favorable reviews this week for light training, and officials announced that timed workouts on the main track would resume on Wednesday morning.
Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer of Santa Anita owner The Stronach Group, expressed confidence in the condition and safety of the main track in a brief interview early Tuesday. The main track opened Monday for joggers and gallopers, light training continued Tuesday.
“Everything looked good. Everybody liked it,” Ritvo said. “It was very quiet when the horses went by; you couldn’t hear anything.”
Santa Anita will reopen for live racing Friday, March 22, which will be the first program since March 5. The track suspended racing following the 21st equine fatality of the meet, which began on Dec. 26. A contributing factor may have been unusually high rainfall this winter, which required repeated sealing of the track surface.
Except for intermittent showers, weather has been dry since last Thursday, allowing surface expert Dennis Moore and track superintendent Andy LaRocco to insure the main track was in optimum condition.
Meanwhile, Santa Anita initiated enhanced safety protocols. Trainers are required to submit workout requests 24 hours in advance. The requests undergo review to identify potential high-risk horses.
Ritvo said the racing office received 250 requests for training-track workouts on Tuesday. “We asked trainers to cut that in half, to wait an extra day - we are going to work on the main track (Wednesday).” There were 133 timed workouts Monday on the training track.
The number of timed works and requests suggests a large inventory of horses that are either race-ready, or close to it. Santa Anita racing secretary Steve Lym said the new condition book would be available online late Tuesday. The first day of the book is the March 22 reopening.
Although the two-week suspension of racing interrupted the stakes program, three postponed Grade 1’s likely will include original pre-race favorites. McKinzie, trained by Bob Baffert, and Gift Box, trained by John Sadler, remain principals for the Santa Anita Handicap, now scheduled for April 6. Baffert and Sadler both indicated they plan to run in the Big Cap.
Sadler-trained Catapult and Richard Baltas-trained Next Shares remain top runners aiming for the Grade 1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile, rescheduled to March 30. Marley’s Freedom, Selcourt, and Paradise Woods are on target for the Beholder Miler, rescheduled to March 23.
The stakes nominations that closed would remain closed. Those include nominations for the Big Cap, Kilroe, Beholder, and Grade 2 San Carlos, a seven-furlong sprint now scheduled for March 23. Horses not originally nominated to the stakes can be supplemented.
Due to the rescheduling of the stakes, Lym said, “We’ll be a little bit flexible on the supplements, and make sure guys that want to get in, get in.”
The repositioning of the Big Cap to April 6 puts the race on the same card as the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks, Grade 2 Royal Heroine, and Grade 3 Providencia. The seven-stakes program also will include two stakes for California-breds.
Pending approval from the California Horse Racing Board, the April 6 card will include a mandatory payout in the 20-cent Rainbow Six wager. The jackpot pool has reached $601,541.