Santa Anita cancels racing Feb. 24-26 due to forecast of heavy rain
ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita has canceled racing through Sunday this weekend due to a forecast for extensive rain beginning Thursday, track officials said Wednesday.
The forecast has led Los Alamitos to cancel its Saturday evening program for Quarter Horses and lower-level Thoroughbreds, track officials said. Los Alamitos officials said a decision on Sunday evening’s program will be made Thursday. There is hope that conditions will improve enough through Sunday to allow for the evening program to proceed.
Santa Anita announced Monday that racing would not be held Friday this week because of expected rain. Track officials extended the cancellations to include Saturday and Sunday’s programs after reviewing forecasts early Wednesday.
Jason Egan, the track’s director of racing, said rainfall totals from Thursday through late Saturday could reach “five to six” inches.
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With this weekend’s cancellations, Santa Anita will have lost six days of racing because of rain since the start of the winter-spring meeting on Dec. 26. The track canceled racing on Jan. 1, 14, and 16 because of excessive rain.
A makeup day was added Jan. 20. Friday’s program was expected to be a makeup day.
California tracks are discouraged from racing in severe weather, following policies enacted by the California Horse Racing Board in late 2020.
Santa Anita announced on Wednesday afternoon that racing will be held on Thursday, March 9, and that additional races will be offered on the weekend of March 3-5 as a makeup for this week’s cancellation.
Currently, the track is scheduled to have a break in April. Racing will be held through April 9 and is currently scheduled to resume Saturday, April 22. The break is designed as a springtime rest for the turf course, horses, and participants. The season concludes June 18.
Two stakes for 3-year-olds scheduled for this weekend will be run March 5 – the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes for fillies at 1 1/16 miles and the $100,000 Baffle Stakes at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course, Egan said.
The Santa Ysabel is a prep for the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks, which has been postponed from its original date on April 1 to April 8 to maintain a five-week gap between the stakes.
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