Santa Anita cancels card for Thursday, March 22nd

ARCADIA, Calif. - A wet morning and a forecast of widespread rain through the day prompted Santa Anita management to cancel Thursday’s eight-race program.

The announcement was made at 9:35 a.m., well before the scheduled first post time of noon Pacific.

The rain was expected to be so severe in Southern California that some neighborhoods affected by devastating mudslides in January were ordered evacuated. Those residences are well north of Santa Anita.

Racing will resume on Friday with an eight-race program. Track officials expect to add races to upcoming programs beginning on Sunday and into next week to offset the lost races from Thursday. Sunday’s program was being drawn on Thursday morning.

Thursday’s program would not have been very attractive. There were 15 late scratches as of 9:30 a.m., with the expectation of more until race time.

This is the first canceled program of the meeting, which began on Dec. 26. In early 2017, the track lost three days of racing because of wet conditions.