Santa Anita's weather woes continue, Sunday program canceled
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Poor weather continues to plague Santa Anita’s winter meeting.
The track canceled racing for the second consecutive day on Sunday because of a forecast of rain through the day, according to an early morning statement.
The loss of Sunday’s program is the sixth day of racing canceled because of wet conditions in slightly more than a week. Racing was canceled on Dec. 26-27 and on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday earlier this week because of extensive rain.
A replacement program was held last Monday. Wednesday’s program was intended to be a makeup program.
The next program of racing is scheduled for this Thursday, the start of a four-day racing week.
So far, there have been three days of racing conducted at the winter-spring meeting – Dec. 28-29, and on Friday of this week. The original schedule called for Sunday to be the seventh racing day of the season, which was scheduled to have started on Dec. 26.
Light rain fell at Santa Anita early Sunday morning, with more rain expected.
To compensate for the recent cancellation, the track has scheduled makeup days on the next two Thursdays – Jan. 8 and Jan. 15. The track has booked nine days of racing through the next two weeks – Jan. 8-11, and Jan 15-19.
Additional replacement days may be added to the scheduled in the near future.
In Sunday morning’s message, the track’s racing office said the Grade 3 Las Flores Stakes for fillies and mares has been postponed from Sunday to Jan. 11. The Grade 3 Santa Ynez Stakes for 3-year-old fillies that was scheduled for Saturday will be run on Saturday, Jan. 10.
Thursday’s program includes two $100,000 turf stakes - the Grade 3 Robert Frankel Stakes for fillies and mares and the Eddie Logan Stakes for 3-year-olds that were postponed from late December.
California tracks are discouraged from racing in severe weather, following inclement weather policies enacted by the California Horse Racing Board in late 2020.
“The weather is set to improve significantly by Monday, and we don’t have any rain in sight for the next 10 days or so,” track general manager Nate Newby said in a statement on Sunday. “It hasn’t been easy, but the safety of the horses will always come first. We’re looking forward to building on the strong momentum from our first few days and getting back to business.”
Last winter, Santa Anita escaped cancellations related to wet weather, but lost three days of racing in early January because of devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area. Three makeup days were later conducted in January and March.
In the winter of 2023-2024, there were six days of racing cancelled because of rain. Three replacement days were added to the schedule.
At the 2022-2023 winter-spring meeting, the track canceled eight days of racing from early January to late March because of weather conditions and was able to make up four days of racing.
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