Santa Anita drops Wednesdays

After just one week of adding Wednesday racing to its weekly schedule, Santa Anita Park announced this morning that it is returning to a four-day weekly horse race schedule of Thursday – Sunday for the last three weeks of its season.

It’s the latest revision to yet another challenging season of heavy rains and race wagers that are down another 17-plus percent this year. Exacerbating the problem is the continuing stagnant economy, horse injuries and fatalities once again rising on the replaced dirt track, and bigger payouts and incentives for horse owners at other tracks, limiting the number of horses available for races at Santa Anita.

“Our horse inventory here in Southern California is well below what it has been in recent years,” said Santa Anita President George Haines. “We’re very confident that by running four days a week, we can offer the horseman plenty of opportunities to run and offer our fans fuller fields which provide more betting opportunities.”

Santa Anita’s “Free Fridays” promotion, also announced recently, will remain in effect for the rest of the meet. First post time on all weekdays will be at 1 p.m. and weekend post time will be 12:30 p.m., with the exception of Santa Anita Derby Day on April 9, when first post will be at 12 noon.

— By Scott Hettrick