Santa Anita cancels Friday card due to rainstorm

Santa Anita will not race on Friday in anticipation of a significant rainstorm later this week.

The track announced on Sunday that entries for Friday were delayed from Sunday until Tuesday to allow additional time to assess expected conditions.

The track announced the cancellation of Friday’s program in an early-morning statement on Tuesday. Racing is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, and is expected to consist entirely of races on the main track.

In Tuesday’s announcement, Santa Anita stated that two stakes scheduled for this weekend – Saturday’s Grade 2 San Marcos Stakes at 1 1/4 miles and Sunday’s Baffle Stakes for 3-year-old sprinters – have been postponed.

The Baffle will be run on Feb. 5, while the San Marcos will be run on Feb 6.

This Saturday’s program will have two stakes – the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes at 1 1/8 miles and the Grade 3 Robert Lewis Stakes at 1 1/16 miles for 3-year-olds.

In Tuesday’s statement, track general manager Nate Newby said the strongest rain is expected on Friday. The track intends to add additional races to forthcoming programs to compensate for the eight races that were scheduled for Friday.

Several races scheduled for Friday will be potentially run from Saturday through Feb. 5, pending the number of entries. Without the Baffle Stakes on Sunday, the program will not have a stakes race.

Rain is expected to begin Thursday evening and continue through Friday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. No rain is expected on Saturday or Sunday.

This is the first rain-related cancellation since December 2019 when two programs were lost because of significant rain, leading to the postponement of the 2019-20 winter-spring meeting from Dec. 26 to Dec. 28.

Santa Anita postponed the start of its autumn meeting last September because of smoke from nearby fires. Two days of racing were lost because of poor air quality.