Santa Anita schedules off days to give turf a rest

ARCADIA, Calif. - Santa Anita will not race at all on April 9 and 16, and will not race on turf on April 10 and 11 to give the turf course a brief rest next month in advance of the final months of the winter-spring meeting, track officials said Saturday.

As a result of those added off days, there will be a gap of nearly two weeks without turf racing from April 5-16 for maintenance, racing secretary Chris Merz said. The course will be used extensively through the conclusion of the current meeting on June 20.

“The turf course needs a break for everything to come together,” Merz said.

As a result of the break in turf racing, the $75,000 Mizdirection Stakes for fillies and mares at six furlongs on turf has been postponed from April 10 to April 17.

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Santa Anita is on schedule for a continuous winter-spring meeting for the first time since the 2017-18 season, a key reason to give the turf course a brief rest, officials said.

In 2019, racing was cancelled for more than three weeks in March for renovation and inspection of the main track following a series of highly publicized equine fatalities. In 2020, Santa Anita was ordered closed by the Los Angeles County Board of Public Health from March 27 to May 15 at the start of the pandemic, leading to the cancellation of 21 days of racing.

In those years, turf maintenance was conducted during the periods without racing, officials said.

“Six months is a long run without any kind of a break,” track general manager Nate Newby said.

The current turf course, consisting primarily of Bermuda grass, was installed in the spring and summer of 2016 following criticism in the preceding months regarding the condition of the course. Since 2014, Santa Anita has run a winter-spring meeting as long as six months, following the closure of Hollywood Park in 2013.

In 2016, the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting was held in two parts, with Los Alamitos hosting a three-week meeting in April of that year.

In recent years, turf racing has had a higher profile in day-to-day racing.

At the current meeting through Saturday, 156 of the 320 races were run on turf with an average field size of a robust 8.4 runners per race. There have been 164 dirt races averaging 7.13 runners per race, for an overall average of 7.75 runners per race.

At the 2019-20 meeting, there were 527 races overall, with 299 on dirt and 228 on turf. By comparison, at the 2016-17 meeting, there were 510 races, with 374 on dirt, but only 136 on turf.

Merz said turf racing will continue to be approximately 50 percent of the races offered in the final months of the current season.

“I’ll continue it the same way,” Merz said.

From April 17 through June 20, there are 36 stakes scheduled – 19 on turf and 17 on dirt. There are two Grade 1 turf races worth $300,000 on May 31 – the Gamely Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles and the Shoemaker Mile.

Merz, racing coordinator Jason Egan, and stakes coordinator James Kasparoff are hoping to draw a significant number of national participants for those and other leading races in the final months of the season. Egan joined Santa Anita’s staff in January, having worked in the racing offices at the Maryland Jockey Club in recent years.

The rearranged schedule will come during a time when the track hopes to have a limited ontrack audience as early as April 2. Track officials are in discussion with county health officials about how many customers will be allowed to attend racing, beginning on the first weekend of April.

Santa Anita has not been open to the general public since March 8, 2020.