Santa Anita Track Staff Barely Beats Rain

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(from track report)
Thanks to his diligent staff and a turn of good fortune, Santa Anita track superintendent Steve Wood was able to seal the main track only minutes before a powerful rainstorm hit early Tuesday morning, nearly 24 hours before it was expected.

The rain continued throughout the day Wednesday, contributing to increasingly sloppy racing conditions at the Arcadia track.

"I have probably the most dedicated crew in the world," Wood said Wednesday morning, a day that was barely fit for man nor beast. Only five official workouts were recorded on the sloppy track, while seven were timed on Tuesday's "muddy" track.

"This (rain) was not forecast for Monday night," Wood noted. "It started about 1:30 (Tuesday morning), but it was 24 hours ahead of schedule. I had a guy here (at Santa Anita), he called me and I told him to seal the track. He contacted my foreman, who lives here, and the track was sealed by 2 o'clock (a.m.). By 2:15, the track would have been too wet to seal.

"Had the men not been here, by the time it would have taken them to drive here, it would have been too muddy to do anything. We got it sealed, it's going to be in perfect shape. I don't anticipate any problems."

Wood said he expects rain to continue into Friday morning.

"We've gotten maybe two inches (so far) and we'll probably get two more," he said. "This system is tapped into a tropical Southern storm and there's a lot of rain that accompanies it.

"This storm was a day head of schedule. In my whole career, I've never seen a storm start a day head of when it was predicted. Usually, they're later."

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