HORSE RACING

• No Friday racing at Santa Anita

  
  

  Arcadia, CA (Sports Network) - Santa Anita Park has been forced to cancel its Friday racing program because of the large amount rain that has fallen in the area.

  The track cancelled Thursday's race card on Wednesday after doing the same on Monday.

  "We're told that the heavy rain is supposed to be clear of us by about noon tomorrow," said Santa Anita President Ron Charles. "The weather outlook for the weekend is favorable and we are optimistic that if the forecast holds, we're going to be able to run Saturday and Sunday. As we've said, safety is our number one priority and we?ll continue to make all decisions based upon that." The problem has been the ineffectual draining of the water from the artificial racing surface.

  Santa Anita's main track is the synthetic Pro-Ride system. Reports state that the racetrack will change the track after the current race meet.

  "Even though it's been raining hard at times over the past four days, we've seen a lot of improvement in the main track and the way it's draining," Charles said.

  "However, we're told we could get two or more inches of rain today, so we felt it would be in everyone's best interest to make the decision to cancel Friday's program this morning."

  01/21 16:29:42 ET