Santa Anita decision between Noon-12:30p

[The Indomitable DrugS]

..

Santa Anita Postpones Two Racing Cards
Weather: Track officials hope to resume the meeting on Friday, after the surface has dried.
January 19, 1993|BILL CHRISTINE , TIMES STAFF WRITER

In keeping with the unusual happenings of the strangest winter meeting in years, Santa Anita announced before the improvised 11-race card began Monday that racing for Wednesday and Thursday, normally the next two racing days, had been postponed because of continued rain-related difficulty filling fields.

"We could have put together a card for Wednesday with 50 or so horses," said Cliff Goodrich, president at Santa Anita. "But then we would have been backed up for Thursday's card, with a probable shortage of horses.

"Rather than start something that would have led to additional problems a day or two down the road, we decided to wait until Friday. The weather forecast is the best I've heard for some time, but I'll believe it when I see it."

There has been about 20 inches of rain at Santa Anita since the meeting opened on Dec. 26, severely restricting the availability of the main track during morning training hours and forcing suspension of all turf racing since Jan. 1.

Monday, the main track was closed to workouts as superintendent Steve Wood's crew worked to make the surface race-ready for the afternoon's abbreviated card. The training track, which was overloaded with workouts last week, was used by only nine horses Monday, according to the workout tab.

On Sunday, when a cloudburst hit the track late in the day, the jockeys voted unanimously not to ride in the last race and it was canceled. They were ready to work again after the track was repaired Monday.

The cancellation because of a jockey action of Sunday's last race is believed to be a first in Santa Anita history.

"I go back about 50 years and I can't recall any," steward Pete Pedersen said.

Santa Anita has reported that there have been 17 consecutive off-tracks, all of the racing dates since Dec. 27, breaking the track record of 15. But the Daily Racing Form differs, saying its charts indicate all of the races on Jan. 1 were run on fast tracks. That would leave the string of consecutive off-tracks at 13.

[Kasept]

There you go! And the famed Pete Pederson the answer to the Racing Secretary question...

[Alan07]

The Sham has been rescheduled for March 6.

[mbahadur]

Originally Posted by Alan07

The Sham has been rescheduled for March 6.

Only a week away from the San Felipe -- might pick some horses pointed for that race (especially if Lookin at Lucky runs in the San Felipe). Early bird nominations to the Santa Anita Derby are eligible for the Sham Stakes.

Nextdoorneighbor should get a better post when they redraw.

[SCUDSBROTHER]

Don't understand why the dirt-only race fans are interested in this. How many times do you have to be told that it's a drainage problem, and not a track surface problem? How many people from Cali are complaining when AQU closes due to being a snow magnet? Lately, it's been a chalk fest at Anita. Spent $24 on the late p3 there yesterday(bull single/all/ 3rd,4th,5th favs .) Had a chance to get the $129 payoff in the last(for the Sadler newcomer,) but the chalk held me off. So, it's not like I was desperate to try beating the chalk again today. If I have a complaint about these surfaces, it's that they(for us) don't create that many carryovers. If SOCAL loses it's reputation as the p6 carryover king, then it's big trouble. I know that changing back to dirt will hurt our main track field size, but it will create more random-type results. Scuds plan (to save the very lucrative p6 king reputation) would be to have dirt with reduced racing dates. If you try to return to 5 day a week racing on dirt out here, you will see huge field size problems (much worse than the present shortages.) You need a more forgiving dirt track than the ones we had. Horses need to be able to race more often than they were racing on those old dirt tracks we had.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by SCUDSBROTHER

Don't understand why the dirt-only race fans are interested in this.

Because they also bet?

[SCUDSBROTHER]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

Because they also bet?

People routinely bet races run on the synthetic, but they hate synthetic? There's no carry-over into today's card.

[my miss storm cat]

Originally Posted by Alan07

The Sham has been rescheduled for March 6.

Oh that's great cause in the 10 day forecast....

Well let's just wait and see and hope that they're wrong.

[richard]

I just don't see Frank rushing into a surface change because the present track works, except for the drainage. It's dollars and cents . In the bloodhorse he also mentioned he is interested in a new type of surface. Sand, dirt, and some fiber . I believe Frank is looking for some profits before any further surface changes.

[SCUDSBROTHER]

LOL....What a joke that Crystal Water Handicap was. Just let Gomez waltz. Solis may have enough nuts to breed, but their is a female brain in that head.