Santa Anita suspends meet on instructions from county health department

After holding discussions with Los Angeles County officials on Friday, Santa Anita has ceased racing effective immediately because of the coronavirus outbreak.

The track made the announcement in a statement texted to horsemen at 12:25 p.m. Friday, less than an hour before the day’s first race. The track was preparing for an eight-race program to begin at 1 p.m.

It was not immediately clear when the track would be allowed to resume racing.

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In a statement, Santa Anita announced that racing would cease “in accordance with instructions received from Los Angeles County Health Department.”

The track said it was operating under instructions issued by the California Horse Racing Board on Friday morning to comply with local health authorities.

“At this time there are no known cases of COVID-19 at Santa Anita,” the track said in its statement, referring to the name of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

“We will continue to work with authorities to familiarize them with the protocols which have been put in place to protect the health and safety of those who work with the horses and horses themselves.

“We look forward to the return of live racing at Santa Anita as soon as approval is received from local regulators.”

Early Friday morning, the racing board released a two-paragraph statement saying it was deferring to “state, county and local health authorities to determine whether horse racing is deemed essential for exemption from shelter-in-place orders issued by those authorities.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a stay-at-home order for California residents earlier this month, but Santa Anita was allowed to operate from March 20-22 after the policy was implemented.

Since March 14, Santa Anita has raced without spectators and has severely curtailed the number of people permitted to be at the track during racing. For example, owners were not permitted to attend the races effective March 20.

The cessation of racing occurred a week before the track was to run its Santa Anita Derby program on April 4.