It’s Raining, but Santa Anita Track Is Draining

Despite the downpour Arcadia and the rest of the Southland has been experiencing, winter-spring meeting is expected to open on schedule Sunday.

The racetrack's new traditional dirt track, installed this fall at the cost of $3.8 million, is handling this week's record amount of rainfall pretty much like water off a duck's back.     

"It's draining well," Santa Anita track superintendent Richard Tedesco told Patch Monday night. "We had horses out there on it this morning and I have no doubt we'll open on schedule Sunday."      

Tedesco conceded it would be a whole different story if Santa Anita's ill-fated synthetic track was still in place.      

"With all the rain we've gotten, we probably wouldn't have been able to open until January," Tedesco said. "It was a good surface, but we couldn't get the water through it."      

With the synthetic track, which consisted of a gummy binder mixed in with sand and rubber chips and other material, the water was supposed to go straight down through the track and into an underground drainage system.     

But instead heavy rains, particularly those in January and February of 2008, created pools of water and an inconsistent track that was potentially dangerous for horses and their riders.      

Normally, horses are able to race in the rain, but in this case the Arcadia track lost an unprecedented 11 race days during those two months.        

The synthetic track was installed at a cost of nearly $8 million in the summer of 2007 following a mandate by the California Horse Racing Board, which governs horse racing in the state.     

The mandate that California's five major thoroughbred racetracks convert from natural dirt to synthetic surfaces came about after an inordinate number of horses had been breaking down, causing them to be euthanized.    

It was believed that synthetic tracks would be safer. That became a hotly debated topic.    

But there was no debate about Santa Anita's synthetic track being unable to handle heavy rains.       

Because of an outcry from all corners regarding synthetic tracks, particularly the one at Santa Anita, the CHRB rescinded its mandate earlier this year, enabling Santa Anita to revert to a traditional dirt track.     

Battling the current rainfall, however, is no easy task. The past two days two tractors pulling floats have been on the track nearly round the clock to seal it. The floats pack down the dirt, forcing the excess rainwater to drain off the sides rather than soaking down through the surface.     

According to Tedesco, the tractors were out there until 5:30 p.m. Monday and a single worker was scheduled to begin driving another tractor beginning at 11 p.m. Another two-man crew was scheduled to begin work at 6 a.m. Tuesday.      

Tedesco planned to be at the track at 2 a.m.      

The two-day rain total was near 9 inches by late Monday.       

Earlier Monday in a press release issued by the track, Santa Anita president George Haines said: "Right now, we're very surprised the track is as good as it is after 6 inches of rain. We're happy."     

And Arcadia residents should be too since Santa Anita and its success means so much to the city and its economy.