Santa Anita cancels Saturday, Sunday cards due to forecasted rain

Santa Anita has canceled racing on Saturday and Sunday because of a forecast of extensive rain.

Track officials made the decision Thursday morning after monitoring expected conditions for the weekend. As much as three inches of rain may fall in Southern California.

“It looks like enough rain to mess up the weekend – and no turf racing,” track general manager Nate Newby said.

The track was to have one day of racing this week, on Friday.

Officials were hoping the forecast would subside to allow racing to continue this weekend, but did not see a significant change in the forecast.

“We’ve been watching the last couple of days to see if it would move,” Newby said. “It’s pretty consistent.”

Newby said forecasts are for “pretty steady” rain on Saturday and Sunday.

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California tracks are strongly discouraged from racing in severe weather, following inclement weather policies enacted by the California Horse Racing Board in late 2020.

The track plans to add a day of racing on Thursday, April 4, the start of four scheduled days of racing through April 7 to conclude the winter-spring portion of the season that began Dec. 26.

A spring meeting will begin April 19 and continue through June 16.

The April 4 program will include two Grade 3 turf stakes worth $100,000 that were scheduled for this weekend – the Wilshire Stakes for fillies and mares and the American Stakes for older horses. Entries for the April 4 races will be taken Saturday.

“We want to keep those races on the turf and give those guys an opportunity to run,” Newby said.

The track has tentative plans to run nine races on April 4-5, 12 races on April 6 on a program led by the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, and 10 races on April 7.

“We can have some good cards to close out the weekend,” Newby said. “Sometimes with the week off, people are looking to run.”

The cancellation of Sunday’s program has led to the postponement of an infield Easter egg hunt that has been a popular draw. Newby said the event will be held April 7 with the hope that families will continue to participate.

“Most people’s Easter plans will be rained out,” he said.

With this weekend’s cancellation, Santa Anita has lost six days of racing to weather conditions since early February. So far, the track has added two replacement days, a Thursday in mid-February and a Monday earlier this month. The April 4 program will be a third make-up day.

At the 2022-23 winter-spring meeting, the track canceled eight days of racing from early January to late March and were able to make up four days of racing.

Earlier this month, a major day of racing on March 2 was canceled because of weather conditions, leading to a 24-hour postponement of races such as the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap and Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes.

Newby said Thursday that another day of racing could be added to the schedule later this spring, pending an assessment of the number of race-ready horses.

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