New turf sprint chute will get plenty of use; warmups extended to let horses acclimate

ARCADIA, Calif. – Turf sprints starting from a newly constructed backstretch chute are likely to be daily fixtures when the weather permits at Santa Anita this winter.

On opening weekend, the track began running sprints at six and 6 1/2 furlongs from a chute adjacent to the seven-furlong chute on the main track. On the new turf chute, horses run as much as a furlong before crossing the main track and joining the oval portion of the turf course approximately 5 1/2 furlongs from the finish.

An allowance race at 6 1/2 furlongs was run on the new course Saturday followed by a six-furlong allowance race on Sunday.

On Thursday’s nine-race program, the first race is an allowance race at six furlongs on turf and the final race is a maiden race at 6 1/2 furlongs on turf. Friday’s nine-race program has three races starting in the new turf chute, including the Grade 2 Joe Hernandez Stakes, a $200,000 race at 6 1/2 furlongs.

With the new chute, the track will no longer run turf sprints at five and 5 1/2 furlongs, according to racing secretary Chris Merz. Santa Anita has not run a sprint starting on the hillside turf course since March 2019 and has no immediate plans to do so. The hillside portion of the turf course will be used for races from 1 1/4 miles to about 1 3/4 miles.

Construction of the new turf chute began in August and was completed this fall.

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The backstretch turf chute has a left-handed dogleg turn before the runners reach the dirt crossing.

In Saturday’s race, the 133-1 longshot The Rule of King’s jumped at the crossing onto the dirt course before fading to finish last in a field of 12. The 11-1 Highly Distorted led throughout the race at 6 1/2 furlongs.

There was no significant incident at the crossing of Sunday’s race, which had a field of 11.

For Sunday’s race, jockeys were given additional time during warmups to gallop their mounts over the dirt crossing. Flavien Prat rode 5-2 favorite Jetovator to a win in Sunday’s race, and said after the race that the longer warmup period gives horses more time to see the new course layout. A large field can make for traffic issues during warmups, he said.

“The warmup is a bit messy,” he said. “We got backed up when we were warming up. We’ll adapt.”

Merz said providing an ample warmup and acclimation period in the minutes before the race is a priority.

“We’ll get them out there sooner and give them a chance to gallop over it,” Merz said. “As we get more races, we’ll fine-tune the warmup.”

Umberto Rispoli rode Master Ryan to a fourth-place finish on Sunday and said the gelding benefited from a warmup, doing so without a pony.

“For me, it was fine,” Rispoli said. “My horse handled it.”

Jockey Ricardo Gonzalez, who began riding in Southern California earlier this year, said the new distances provide better footing at the start of turf sprints than races at 5 1/2 furlongs. At that distance, races started on the first turn of the dirt course. Horses ran on dirt for a few strides before joining the main turf oval.

“They stumbled a lot,” he said. “This is way better.”