Santa Anita Park Cancels Thursday Racing Program; Sunshine Millions In Doubt

Posted on Thursday, January 24th, 2008

Santa Anita Park canceled their Thursday horse racing program for the 4th time this month due to heavy rainfall and overnight hail on its Cushion Track that has had drainage problems since its installation. This situation leaves the West Coast half of Sunshine Millions in serious doubt.

“We received an inch and a half of rain overnight and we got hit with two inches of hail early this morning,” Ron Charles, Santa Anita Park president, said. “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.”

Santa Anita track superintendent Richard Tedesco said they could scrape off the top two inches of the Cushion Track and have a safe surface on which to race. However, the rain and hail that has fallen already puts the $500,000 Sunshine Millions Filly & Mare Turf in doubt.

Ron Charles and Santa Anita Park vice president and general manager George Haines said that they are discussing all options if Sunshine Millions cannot proceed as scheduled, from relocating the races to Golden Gate Fields or Hollywood Park to rescheduling the races. Changing venues creates new problems, though, from moving horses 500 miles north to moving tote equipment across town.

Ron Charles said decisions will be made in full consultation with trainers, owners, jockeys, officials and track maintenance personnel. He also said the track is eager 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,” Charles said. “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.”

Santa Anita Park previously canceled racing from January 5-7 because of heavy rain. The Santa Anita Winter/Spring Meet runs through April 20 and Sunshine Millions Day is at January 26.

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"Santa Anita Park Cancels Thursday Racing Program; Sunshine Millions In Doubt" was posted on Thursday, January 24th, 2008 at 2:33 pm and is filed under Horse Racing Industry, Race Tracks News, Santa Anita Track, USA Horse Racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.