Turf course to get a rest this month

Santa Anita will run an abbreviated schedule in mid-April, with no racing on the Fridays of April 9 and 16, no turf racing on the weekend of April 10-11, and limited turf racing on the weekend of April 17-18.

The track has raced primarily on a three-day-a-week schedule in recent months. The revised calendar is designed to give the turf course a mid-season rest. The season began Dec. 26 and ends June 20.

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Through last Sunday, field size had averaged 7.59 runners per race, slightly more than 7.34 during a similar time in the 2019-20 meeting. The entire 2019-20 meeting averaged 7.5 runners per race, but was interrupted for seven weeks from late March to mid-May after the track was ordered closed by county government officials in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.

Field sizes have dropped slightly in recent weeks. Through March 7, fields had averaged 7.79 runners per race since the start of the season.

Two turf races are scheduled daily on the weekend of April 17-18. The April 17 program will include the $75,000 Mizdirection Stakes for fillies and mares at six furlongs on turf.

Racing secretary Chris Merz said Friday that the April 10-11 programs are scheduled to have nine dirt races each day.

When racing resumes on a three-day-a-week schedule on April 23, the turf course will be used extensively, Merz said.

Through last Sunday, 187 of the 380 races at the meeting, 49 percent, had been run on turf. For the 2019-20 season, the turf course was used for 43 percent of the races.

The revised schedule has affected plans for some jockeys. Umberto Rispoli, who through last Sunday was third in the standings at the winter-spring meeting, plans to ride at Keeneland next weekend before returning to Santa Anita for the April 17 program.