Santa Anita announces rainout of Monday racing

Santa Anita has called off thoroughbred racing Monday as rainstorms are forecast for the Los Angeles area.

The track in Arcadia had planned a holiday-Monday card of eight races starting at 12:30 p.m.

Racing was still scheduled to be held Sunday, with nine races beginning at 12:30, featuring the $100,000 Palos Verdes Stakes.

The National Weather Service forecast called for a chance of rain starting after 4 p.m. Sunday and heavy rain Monday.

The Presidents Day card will be the sixth on Santa Anita’s original season calendar to be postponed or canceled because of rain, but the first since Jan. 4. Opening day was pushed back from Dec. 26 to Dec. 28, and the track was unable to run four of its first seven originally scheduled cards. Two of the four have been made up with the addition of Thursday programs.

Santa Anita said it will add a racing day later in its Classic Meet, which runs through April 5, to make up for losing Monday.

Racing is scheduled to resume Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 20-22.

Racing used to be routinely held on muddy tracks. Calling off racing when heavy rain is expected is one of the safety-minded protocols tracks have adopted since a spike in fatal injuries to horses at Santa Anita in early 2019. The spike coincided with an unusually long period of sustained rain in Southern California.