Santa Anita looking to add makeup day
ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita officials hope to add a day of racing in the coming months as a makeup for canceling Thursday’s program because of wet conditions.
Track senior vice president Joe Morris said on Friday that the track is more likely to add a full day rather than add races to existing programs to compensate for the eight lost races.
“I want to make that day up,” Morris said. “We’ll look at both options, but I’d like the day back. We’ve got until July 4 to find an opportunity.”
Santa Anita’s spring-summer meeting is scheduled to begin April 14 and continue until July 4.
Morris said there are several options for a makeup day. Santa Anita typically does not race Thursdays following Monday holidays such as Presidents Day or Memorial Day and could add a day on one of those weeks.
The track is tentatively scheduled to begin the spring-summer meeting with two three-day racing weeks, April 14-16 and 21-23. A Thursday could be added to one of those weeks.
Finally, the track is not scheduled to race on Monday, July 3, before closing the spring-summer meeting on the Fourth of July.
Thursday’s program was lost because of persistent rain. The cancellation was announced before 9 a.m. Pacific.
“We’ve gotten close to 12 inches in the last month,” Morris said on Friday.
Main-track training resumed Friday for the first time in several days, although most stables restricted activity to jogging and galloping.
Arrogate, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic here in November, galloped shortly after 9 a.m. Arrogate is scheduled to start in the $12 million Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 28.