Last weekend on the hillside

ARCADIA, Calif. – The hillside turf course at Santa Anita will not be used after Sunday’s program for the final five weeks of the spring-summer meeting to allow the course to be replaced for the autumn meeting.

There are two races on the hillside Friday and one Saturday. Sunday’s program was scheduled to be drawn Thursday. Rick Hammerle, Santa Anita’s vice president and racing secretary, said he expects to have four races on the hillside Sunday.

The main portion of the turf course will be used through June 19. There will be no turf racing in the final three weeks of the spring-summer meeting, which ends July 10.

After this weekend, the next turf sprints in Southern California will be during the Del Mar summer meeting, which starts July 15.