Santa Anita Postpones Opener; Fire Impacts Air Quality
Image:
Description:
Photo: Skip Dickstein
Horses train during the 2019 autumn meet at Santa Anita Park
The opening day of Santa Anita Park's autumn season will be pushed back a week until Friday, Sept. 25, due to the impact of the Bobcat Fire on the air quality and surrounding community.
"Our local community has been deeply impacted by the Bobcat Fire burning for more than a week in the mountains behind us," said Aidan Butler, executive director of California operations for The Stronach Group. "The current weather pattern has kept the smoke in the valley and the air quality is quite poor right now. The Red Cross is using Santa Anita as the evacuation zone for people—including many of our horsemen—whose homes are less than two miles from here. As excited as we are to welcome back live racing, we are first and foremost committed to safety. This is the responsible decision to make at this time so people can plan accordingly."
Santa Anita was originally scheduled to open its meet Saturday, Sept. 19. Slated for opening day were the Speakeasy Stakes, for 2-year-olds sprinting 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf with a berth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G2T) on the line, and the Chillingworth Stakes (G3) for fillies and mares 3 years old and up sprinting 6 1/2 furlongs. The 1 1/2-mile Tokyo City Cup (G3) for 3-year-olds and up would have run the following day.
Steve Lym, Santa Anita's vice president of racing and racing secretary, said: "The stakes races set for this weekend will be brought back next weekend. The smoke has impacted some training schedules, so postponing until next weekend will allow everyone a chance to be ready to go. We are planning on filling extra races throughout the meet to give our horsemen the opportunity to run their horses."
The Chillingworth has been rescheduled for the new opening day, the Speakeasy for Saturday, Sept. 26, and the Tokyo City Cup for Sunday, Sept. 27.
Opening week will now feature a schedule of stakes offering over $2 million in purse money. The schedule includes seven races that are "Win and You're In" races for the 2020 Breeders' Cup World Championships.
Entries for opening day will be drawn Sunday, Sept. 20. First post will be 12:30 p.m. PT.