Opening day has pick-six carryover

ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita begins its springsummer meeting on Friday with a track first – a carryover on opening day.

The single-ticket jackpot portion of the pick six starts with a pool of $117,784.

Santa Anita ended the winter-spring segment of its marathon six-month meeting last Sunday. Typically, any wagers involving a potential carryover are dispersed in full on the closing day of a meet. Because the two meetings are conducted on the same regulatory license issued by the California Horse Racing Board, a carryover is permitted from the end of one segment of the meeting to the start of the next.

The single-ticket jackpot provision of the pick six was launched with the start of the winter-spring meeting. The bet produced a payoff of $1,199,286 on April 6, the highest of the meeting. The bet has not been hit since then in three subsequent racing days, leading to Friday’s carryover.

For Friday’s opening day, an eight-race program beginning at 1 p.m. Pacific, jockey and trainer statistics start anew. Otherwise, racing will be the same as what has been presented since the opening of the winter-spring meeting on Dec. 26.

The spring-summer meeting runs through July 4, a racing calendar similar to the track’s schedule in 2013-14 and 201415, the first two years after the closure of Hollywood Park at the end of 2013. Last year, Santa Anita did not race for a three-week period from midApril to early May while racing shifted briefly to Los Alamitos.

This year, Los Alamitos will have a two-week meeting in July before the start of the Del Mar summer meeting.

At Santa Anita, racing will be conducted largely on a Thursday-through-Sunday basis, with programs on May 29 and July 3-4. The track added two days to the meeting – Thursday, April 20, and Thursday, June 1 – after losing three days of racing to rain during a heavy wet season in January and February.

Originally, the first two weeks were not expected to have turf racing, but since the winter-spring meeting was plagued by rain – and had 10 fewer turf races than in 201516 – the turf course will be used for the next two weekends.

During that time, the turf rails will be set 30 feet out from the permanent inside position to give part of the turf course a chance to recover from recent use, officials said in late March.

The meeting is highlighted by four Grade 1 races, the richest of which will be the $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on May 27, the same day as the $300,000 Gamely Stakes for fillies and mares on turf.

The June 3 program has two Grade 1 races worth $400,000 each – the Beholder Mile on dirt for fillies and mares and the Shoemaker Mile on turf.

The first races of the year for 2-year-olds on this circuit are tentatively scheduled for May 4, leading to two $100,000 stakes at 5 1/2 furlongs on July 2 – the Landaluce Stakes for fillies and the open Santa Anita Juvenile.