Mandatory payouts on bonus day of racing after power outage
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Santa Anita will conclude its spring meeting Monday, a day later than expected, after a power outage on Thursday led to the cancellation of the final four races on a nine-race program.
The track announced the addition of Monday’s program on Thursday evening, several hours after the cancellation. The track received regulatory approval from the California Horse Racing Board late Thursday to add Monday’s program, track general manager Nate Newby said.
Newby said the track raced with power from generators on the weekend of June 6-7 after normal power issues surfaced from a transformer. After Thursday’s cancellation, the track conducted two tests of generators, which operated without incident.
“We’ve got backups for backups,” Newby said.
Monday’s program begins at 1 p.m. Pacific and includes the $100,000 Affirmed Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles, which was scheduled for Thursday. The other three races canceled on Thursday were scheduled to be redrawn as part of Monday’s program.
The two principal runners entered in the Affirmed Stakes on Thursday – Decisive Win and Secured Freedom – are expected to start on Monday.
The Affirmed Stakes drew a field of seven, including Litmus Test, who won the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity last December. Trained by Bob Baffert, Litmus Test is winless in three starts this year, including a 17th-place finish in a field of 18 in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 2, his last start. Litmus Test has been part of Baffert's Churchill division this spring.
Decisive Win, trained by Doug O’Neill, will have his stakes debut in his third start in the Affirmed. After finishing fourth in a maiden race at 6 1/2 furlongs behind the eventual graded stakes winner Crude Velocity, Decisive Win rebounded to win a maiden race at a mile by 5 1/2 lengths as the 1-2 favorite on May 22, leading throughout.
Secured Freedom was fourth by seven lengths behind Crude Velocity in the Grade 2 Pat Day Mile on May 2 at Churchill Downs. Trained by Tim Yakteen, Secured Freedom has won once in five starts, a maiden race at 6 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita in December. Earlier this year, Secured Freedom was third in the Grade 3 Robert Lewis Stakes at a mile in February and fourth in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at 1 1/16 miles in March.
Santa Anita lost power on two occasions on Thursday in the western portion of the track property that includes the television broadcast production and production truck. After the fifth race, power was lost for approximately 40 minutes before it was briefly restored, the track said in a statement. A few minutes later, power was lost for a second time.
The runners for Thursday’s sixth race were in the paddock for more than 30 minutes with the hope that power could be restored.
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This was the first mechanical-based cancellation at Santa Anita in recent memory. The track canceled racing on six occasions from late December to mid-February because of rain.
There will be mandatory payouts in all parimutuel pools on Monday, notably the $2 pick six, 50-cent pick fives, and $1 super high five held on the final race.
With the revised schedule, there will be a four-day gap between the end of the Santa Anita spring meeting and the start of the Los Alamitos meeting on Friday. The Los Alamitos meeting runs from June 19 to July 5.
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