Santa Anita to add sand to main track

Santa Anita Park has announced that its natural dirt main track will be

amended on Tuesday. Sand will be added in order to correct an apparent imbalance

of silt and clay, which is believed to have been caused by recent heavy rains.

"The racetrack may have changed during periods of heavy rain, and we want to

get it right back to where we started," Santa Anita President George Haines

said. "The jockeys continue to be very happy with the track and it has remained

safe. We know it's playing too fast and we're going to address that, gradually."

Santa Anita replaced its synthetic main track with an all natural dirt

surface prior to its current winter/spring meeting, which began on December 26.

The new surface has undergone continuing soil analysis, which measures

percentages of sand, silt and clay.

"We'll get busy after training hours on Tuesday," Haines said. "We've met

with the horsemen's leadership. We will now make a determination as to how much

sand we'll be adding.

"Safety remains our number one priority and so we'll closely monitor how

horses are traveling over the surface and how they come out of their gallops and

works. We'll continue to have Michael DePew, who is a soil scientist, on site

and he'll continue to analyze samples. He will be working with our track

superintendent, Richard Tedesco, on the types and amounts of material to be

added."

Santa Anita will reopen for live racing on Thursday, with first post time at

1 p.m. (PST).