Santa Anita Park has postponed Friday's Jan. 10 racing program until next Thursday, Jan. 16. due to the forecast of poor air quality for the San Gabriel Valley after the devasting impact made by the Eaton Fire in the Los Angeles area, the track said in a press release on Thursday afternoon.
The California Horse Racing Board has approved this proactive rescheduling of the 10-race card. The races will be run with the horses previously entered in the post position order originally drawn.
“While Santa Anita continues to remain well outside of any active fire area, the smoke from the wildfires is affecting all of Los Angeles County,” said Santa Anita's General Manager & SVP Nate Newby. “We also want to respect the impact that this tragedy has had on many of our community, including our horsemen and women and our own Santa Anita team, who have been devastated by these fires. By proactively moving the races, it gives our horsemen and women, horseplayers, fans and our team the opportunity to plan accordingly.”
A decision on this weekend's racing program, including Saturday's 11-race California Cup program, will be made on Friday.
On Wednesday morning, Santa Anita began distributing N-95 masks to all backstretch and frontstretch personnel as well as protective eyewear because of the smoke from the Eaton Fire. Though Santa Anita was never in any imminent danger from the fire, the track has offered assistance to trainers who wished to voluntarily evacuate their horses to another CHRB facitlity.
Click here for TDN's coverage of the Eaton Fire.
Thank u to everyone that's reached out the last few days. All the calls & texts mean a lot. My family evacuated Tuesday night, but thankfully we are safe and the house is ok. Horses at Santa Anita are healthy. Sadly many families in our area lost everything pic.twitter.com/4Eqf1Qs7RZ
— Dan Blacker (@dan_blacker) January 9, 2025
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