Santa Anita rained out again Sunday, set to resume racing Thursday

Santa Anita horse racing was canceled again Sunday as a rainy period in Southern California stretched to nearly two weeks.

The track in Arcadia had also called off racing Saturday. It’s scheduled to resume Thursday, the first of two Thursday cards added to make up for rainouts.

The announcement by Santa Anita management came shortly after 7 a.m. Sunday. As of 8:30, Los Alamitos hadn’t yet announced if its Sunday night quarter-horse and thoroughbred races would go ahead after Saturday’s were canceled.

Santa Anita’s winter-spring season was supposed to begin Dec. 26, but opening day was postponed to Dec. 28 after accurate forecasts of four days of wet weather starting Dec. 23. Racing also was rained out Dec. 31 — a scheduled makeup day — and Jan. 1 and 3. The track had planned to have seven days of racing by now but has been able to have only three.

It’s the most rainouts at Santa Anita in a short period since California began routinely canceling or postponing racing in wet weather after a spike in the number of horse deaths at the Los Angeles area’s largest track in early 2019 coincided with an extended period of rain. There was a similar period of rainouts in January 2023, a year Santa Anita ended up running four fewer days than scheduled during its season.

As of Sunday morning, AccuWeather’s forecast early Sunday for the Arcadia area called for a higher than 50% chance of rain in the morning hours, worsening to higher than 80% from 1 to 3 p.m. Santa Anita’s nine-race card, including the Las Flores Stakes, a Grade III sprint for fillies and mares, was scheduled to begin at noon.

After showers Monday, no rain is predicted for an extended period.

“We are grateful for the support of our stakeholders these last two weeks,” Santa Anita general manager Nate Newby said in Sunday’s announcement. “It hasn’t been easy, but the safety of the horses will always come first. We’re looking forward to building on the strong momentum from our first few days and getting back to business.”

The postponed opening day ended up drawing a crowd of 41,962, biggest since 2016 for a Santa Anita opener.

The nine races scheduled to start Thursday at noon include two stakes on turf, the Grade III Robert J. Frankel Stakes for fillies and mares and the Eddie Logan Stakes for 3-year-olds, both of which were originally scheduled for Dec. 28.