HORSE RACING

• Santa Anita cancels Thursday card

  
  

  Arcadia, CA (Sports Network) - Continued poor weather forecasts has forced Santa Anita Park to cancel its Thursday racing program in advance. This is the second cancellation this week for the California track.

  "We are in the midst of a severe weather system right now," said Santa Anita President Ron Charles.

  "The Weather Service has told us that this is the heaviest rain we've had in this area in the past five years. Since Sunday afternoon, we've been hit with a lot of rain.

  As we know, this system of storms has resulted in mudslides and evacuations in our neighboring hillside communities and it's just something that we're hoping to be able to get through very soon." Upwards of eight inches of rain is forecast in the next 24 hours for Los Angeles.

  Monday's racing at Santa Anita was also canceled due to wet track conditions.

  "For now, we're going to evaluate the main track on a day by day basis," Charles continued, "and safety is of course our number one priority. We've made the decision to cancel live racing for Thursday and we'll take a look at our prospects for Friday tomorrow (Thursday) morning.

  "We realize that by canceling on Thursday that a lot of people are being impacted and we want everyone to know that we're doing everything we possibly can to become operational again. In the interim, we will be open for simulcast racing as originally scheduled." Reports out of Los Angeles have Santa Anita, following the current meet, replacing its synthetic main track with a dirt surface. Santa Anita's main track is an artificial racing surface from Pro-Ride Racing. The meet runs through Sunday, April 18.

  01/20 15:09:32 ET