Santa Anita might postpone Big 'Cap because of rain
Santa Anita executives are considering postponing Saturday's racing card, featuring the Santa Anita Handicap and San Felipe Stakes, because heavy rain is forecast.
If that happens, the Saturday races would be run Sunday, and a Monday card would be added to the calendar, publicity director Mike Willman said Wednesday morning.
A decision is expected by early this morning, and entries for the Saturday or Sunday races would be announced today, a day later than scheduled.
A Weather Channel forecast Wednesday afternoon put the chance of rain in Arcadia at 56% Friday — when Santa Anita plans to go ahead with nine races — worsening to 87% Saturday before improving to 20% Sunday and 4% Monday.
Those are conditions that any track would have raced through in decades past. But postponing or canceling races no longer isn't unusual at Santa Anita since an outbreak of fatal horse injuries during an unusually wet winter in 2019. Santa Anita postponed cards as recently as Feb. 4 and 9 because of bad weather.
Beyond California, a review concluded that rainfall “could not be overlooked” as a factor in 14 horse deaths at Saratoga Race Course in New York state last summer, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority reported this week.
It's rare, though, for weather postponements to affect races of the caliber of the Grade I $500,000 Santa
Anita Handicap, the Grade II $300,000 San Felipe, and two other graded stakes originally set for Saturday.
A year ago, the day of the Santa Anita Handicap — the storied Big `Cap — drew on on-track crowd of 18,173, the fourth biggest of the Santa Anita season.
Possible runners in the 1 ¼-mile Santa Anita Handicap include Newgrange, Newgate and Mixto, the 1-2-3 finishers in the 1 1/8mile San Pasqual Stakes on Jan. 27.
Among nominees for the 1 1/16-mile San Felipe are eight horses trained by Bob Baffert, including top-ranked North American 3-year-old Nysos. As of early this week, Baffert hadn't said which horses he planned to run.
Baffert's horses are ineligible for Kentucky Derby qualifying points because of ongoing sanctions imposed by Churchill Downs stemming from Medina Spirit's disqualification from what would have been the trainer's seventh Derby victory in 2021.
But the San Felipe will draw several horses chasing the 50, 25, 15, 10 and five points awarded to topfive finishers. Nominees include John Sadler-trained Scatify and John Shirreffs-trained Mc Vay, thirdand fourth-place finishers in the Robert Lewis Stakes behind Baffert's Nysos and Wine Me Up, as well as Sadler's Tapalo, second in the El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields.
Willman said the decision on whether to postpone Saturday's card will be made in cooperation with California racing officials and stakeholders.