Santa Anita, Golden Gate Cancel March 10 Due to Rain

Santa Anita Park canceled racing March 10 due to rain, the Southern California track announced. According to the National Weather Service, approximately a fifth of an inch of precipitation fell at a nearby precipitation-measuring location by 9 a.m. PT. Up to half an inch is forecast to fall before evening when heavy rain is forecast to continue.

Golden Gate Fields in Northern California also canceled racing Friday.

"We apologize for the late notice, but wanted to give it a chance to run if the rain held off," Santa Anita tweeted.

"It's an unfortunate situation for everybody," said Jason Egan, Santa Anita's director of racing and racing secretary. "We will explore the possibility of a makeup date in the future, but I'm just going to bring the entire card back as extras for next Friday. We'll try and run more races next weekend."

This is the seventh race day to be canceled at the current meet due to rain. Three days were lost in January and three more last month from Feb. 24-26. The March 9 eight-race program was a makeup for one of the lost cards.

Per the National Weather Service, light precipitation in Southern California could linger through mid-morning March 11.

"We're concerned if we left the track 'open' it would get too much water where we'd have a bad racetrack condition tomorrow," he said. "So it's not just necessarily about today. We have to consider the next day or two also."

California regulators and tracks take a cautious approach to racing over wet tracks. The state has some of the strictest racing regulations in the country, some of which were first implemented in 2019 following a spike in equine breakdowns that winter at Santa Anita. Racing and training over wet tracks occurred during that period of 2019, though numerous factors were deemed to have contributed to the rise in fatalities.