Santa Anita takes a mid-meet break from racing next week
Following Sunday’s program, there is no live racing at Santa Anita until April 30, a day with four graded stakes.
The track will not race from April 22-24 or on Friday, April 29, a gap that will allow a break for the horse population leading to the final weeks of the winter-spring meeting, which ends on June 19. The stoppage of racing allows the turf course to be rested.
Through April 10, the turf course had been used for 220 of the 437 races since the start of the season on Dec. 26. Turf races have averaged 7.75 runners per race, compared to 6.23 runners per dirt race. Overall, fields have averaged 6.99 runner per race.
Through a similar time period at the 2020-2021 meeting, fields averaged 7.52 runners per race, with 8.13 runners on turf and 6.96 on dirt. Of the 427 races run during that time frame at the 2020-2021 meeting, there were 202 on turf and 225 on dirt.
The track did not have a weekend without racing in April 2021, but did eliminate two Friday programs in the middle of the month. There was no turf racing on one weekend that month, and limited turf races the following weekend.
The April 30 program is led by three Grade 2 races – the $225,000 Charles Whittingham Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf, the $200,000 Californian Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on dirt, and the $200,000 Santa Margarita Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles on dirt.