Let it Rain: Santa Anita Will Race Another Day

The 2005 racing season in Southern California commenced with a series of storms that dropped about six inches of rain on Santa Anita Park. Still, the show went on, and there was racing over a variety of wet tracks on Jan. 5-8. Sunday, Jan. 9, dawned with only light rain in the forecast, so there was hope the week of sport could be completed without interruption. The imperative to race was strong. There had not been a weather-related cancellation for 10 years.

The track had been sealed, floated, and resealed in an attempt to keep the water at bay. Five horses went postward in the first race of the day—all five maiden 4-year-olds—over a surface rated "sloppy." Only four of them made it back. Unusual Sunrise, a gelding making his 16th start, fractured a leg at the top of the stretch and was euthanized. A half-hour later, after consultation with the jockeys, management canceled the rest of the program.

There have been worse days, but thankfully not too many. Conditions that January afternoon were sketchy going in, and yet the game rolled the dice, as it had done so many times before, only this time a horse had to pay the ultimate price to keep the show afloat. The gloom descending over the local racing community was palpable.

Nate Newby, Santa Anita's general manager, was a member of the marketing staff in 2005 and therefore was nowhere near any decisions to race or not to race, compared to what happened on two of the three days of this Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, with cancellations Jan. 14 and 16.

Newby was walking around his all-but-deserted grandstand Saturday, coming to terms with the loss of two ripe betting programs. He seemed strangely upbeat, but Newby is the kind of guy to look for silver linings.

"By the end of today we could be over 12 inches of rain in the past two weeks," Newby said. "I think we're fortunate to have lost only one day of racing before this weekend. And we have the ability to make up any lost days, since the shorter race weeks provide for more dates available on the calendar.

"At the end of the day, our first priority is safety," Newby added. "The track was sealed, but it has the ability to bounce back when we can open it. Once it is sealed, though, there is a racing board policy in place."

In the wake of the 2019 season, during which track conditions during harsh winter weather contributed to the deaths of 24 horses during the Santa Anita winter-spring meet, all parties convened to create an Inclement Weather Policy enforced with the power of the California Horse Racing Board. The policy covers the suspension of racing and training for such things as high winds (in the event of sustained 38 mph winds and/or gusts over 50 mph), lightning (when detected within an eight-mile radius of the track), and extreme temperatures (determined by the Heat Stress Index that combines temperature and humidity).

The most common application of the policy is triggered when a dirt track must be sealed to prevent moisture from impacting the base. To wit:

"Any decision to race on a sealed or floated track will be made based upon a decision by the Track Superintendent that in his or her professional opinion the resulting track surface is safe for the conduct of races. That decision shall also provide that the conduct of racing will not jeopardize the safe conduct of racing or training on days subsequent to the inclement weather event. That decision will require the unanimous consent of a committee consisting of the Track Superintendent, Association General Manager, Jockeys Guild Representative, and Safety Steward subject to confirmation by the Board of Stewards."

"The decision must be unanimous among all four groups before we can race," Newby said, adding that the CHRB Equine Medical Director, Thoroughbred Owners of California, and California Thoroughbred Trainers are also in the loop when such decisions need to be made.

As a result, there will be rainy racing days canceled in California that would offer business as usual in other parts of the country. Newby will see the occasional wisecrack on social media that wonders why the West Coast lets a little water put on the brakes. Such attitudes have conveniently forgotten the thread by which California racing dangled in the wake of the 2019 fatalities, besieged on all sides by politicians and animal rights groups. The imperative to race at all costs was no longer viable, and the Inclement Weather Policy has served to spread the decision-making process among the best-informed parties.

It was not always this way. Through the years, jockeys have been used as handy scapegoats when track conditions were compromised by rough weather. When programs were canceled—as they were at Santa Anita for the last three races of March 16, 2016—the announcement usually was accompanied by a variation of "the jockeys refused to ride."

The tone-deaf chorus seems to persist across the land, in an attempt to take management off the hook:

"A protest over the condition of the Woodbine turf course by the track's jockeys forced the cancellation of the first race on the Toronto track's Nov. 14 card."—Nov. 14, 2018, BloodHorse.com.

"The final five races of Sunday's Aqueduct card were canceled when the jockeys refused to ride, citing icy conditions."—Dec. 1, 2019, Daily Racing Form.

"The Remington Park jockey colony called a meeting with track management with 10 minutes to first post time Saturday night. After a track surface inspection, the jockeys elected not to ride."—Oct. 29, 2022, press release.

No one minimizes the loss of racing opportunities for owners, trainers, jockeys, and horseplayers. Form can be ephemeral, inconsistent from a canceled card to a rescheduled date. Although the track will be able to make up the days, Santa Anita would have handled in the neighborhood of $15 million combined on the Saturday and Monday of the holiday weekend. Still, given the balance required for racing to exist in today's cultural climate, that may be a hard pill to swallow, but also a small price to pay.