Santa Anita Race Track

Originally Posted by choons81

Santa Anita Race Track

HEAVY RAIN/HAIL FORCES CANCELLATION AT SANTA ANITA



ARCADIA, Calif. (Jan. 24, 2007)—Due to heavy rainfall and hail overnight, Santa Anita has announced that live racing will be cancelled today and a resumption of live racing will be considered on a day-to-day basis.

“We received an inch and a half of rain overnight and we got hit with two inches of hail early this morning,” said Santa Anita President Ron Charles. “We had a good seal on the track and we were actually in pretty good shape until the hail hit at 5 a.m. Obviously, we are hoping to get a break in this weather pattern and we’re concerned about being able to run our Sunshine Millions races here on Saturday. We will assess the condition of the track on a day-to-day basis and we’re just hoping conditions will improve to the extent that we’ll be able to run.

“Any decision we make will be in full consultation with trainers, owners, jockeys, officials and track maintenance personnel. Both the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC) and the California Thoroughbred Trainers (CTT) have been very understanding. They know that we will not consider running on a surface that the horsemen are uncomfortable with. That said, we want to be able to maintain the flexibility at this stage to be able to take advantage of favorable weather conditions. Right now, we’re looking at a lot of unstable air, so we could get hit with additional showers, but we could also get some blustery conditions which would help the track dry some,” Charles added.

Charles also noted that Santa Anita is anxious to amend the surface with the Australian-based Pro-Ride polymer binder. “We will have the necessary material in place here over the weekend and we are confident that barring weather problems, once this project is undertaken it can be completed in a very short time period,” said Charles. “Again, we are at the mercy of the weather. If we can get dried out, we can get to work on this and we firmly believe this will fully address our drainage problems and promote a kinder racing surface for the remainder of this meet.”

A decision as to whether Santa Anita will be able to conduct live racing on Friday will be made by 10 a.m. Santa Anita is open today for simulcast wagering and will offer free General Admission throughout the day.

Santa Anita’s winter/spring meet will run through April 20.