Santa Anita moves Big Cap card to Sunday due to forecasted rain

ARCADIA, Calif. – The likelihood of an inopportune rainstorm has led Santa Anita to postpone one of its signature racing programs by a day.

The Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap and three other graded stakes scheduled for Saturday instead will be run Sunday. The decision, announced Thursday, was not a surprise. Santa Anita officials spent much of the week forming contingency plans due to the pending storm.

The forecast calls for rain beginning late Friday and lasting through Saturday, when the 10-race Big Cap card was originally scheduled. Post positions were drawn midweek, and Santa Anita planned to release the overnight for the Big Cap card on Thursday.

Track officials delayed announcing the postponement in the event the forecast shifted. It did not. Santa Anita vice president and general manager Nate Newby explained this week, “We want to be as accurate as we can on the forecast. The thought is if Sunday is a nice day, we could run Sunday-Monday if the forecast holds.”

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The 10-race Big Cap card will be run Sunday; the card originally scheduled for Sunday will be run Monday, which would have been a dark day.

Seven older horses entered the 1 1/4-mile Santa Anita Handicap, race 8, led by Newgrange. He drew comfortably in the outside post while seeking his third graded stakes of the winter meet. Newgrange (7) faces sharp Midwest shipper Highland Falls (2) and Salesman (4). The field also includes Reincarnate (1), Mixto (3), Newgate (5), and Subsanador (7).

The three other stakes postponed from Saturday to Sunday include the Grade 1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile on turf, race 7; Du Jour and Easter are likely to vie for favoritism. The Grade 2 Buena Vista Stakes, a mile on turf for fillies and mares, goes as race 10. Ruby Nell is expected to be favored in the Buena Vista.

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Undefeated 3-year-old Nysos tops a field of five entered in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes, race 6. Nysos, widely considered the country’s best 3-year-old, won his first three starts by a combined margin of more than 27 lengths, including a 105-Beyer Speed Figure smasher on Feb. 3. Nysos is trained by Bob Baffert, as are San Felipe entrants Wine Me Up and Imagination. Scatify and the maiden McVay also entered the 1 1/16-mile San Felipe.

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