Santa Anita Derby Weekend Goes Off Without A Hitch

ARCADIA, CA —Racing went off without a hitch at Santa Anita over the weekend, including Saturday's running of the Santa Anita Derby. Hall of Fame horse trainer Bob Baffert's 3-year-old colt Roadster won that event without incident to any horses, according to the track.

"He's come back here, healthy and trained well," Baffert told TVG.com before the race. "We had to train around the rain, and now we have him looking good."

Roadster and his fellow Baffert-trained horse Game Winner finished 1-2 in the $1 million Santa Anita Derby on Saturday.

He told Los Angeles Daily News that he knew one of them would win at the 8th pole. "I didn't know which one would win," he said. "It was exciting."

Of the Santa Anita Race Track, Baffert told the Daily News the track was "really deep and slow, but it’s safe, and that’s what we wanted."
Roadster, a son of Quality Road, has won three of his past four starts and has earned enough qualifying points to ensure a Kentucky Derby spot on May 4, according to the Daily News.

The California Horse Racing Board Monday delayed a planned meeting to discuss the possibility of relocating races away from Santa Anita in light of nearly two dozen horse deaths at the facility since December.

The board had been scheduled to meet Friday at Santa Anita to discuss "possible reallocation of race dates granted to the Los Angeles Turf Club at Santa Anita Park Race Track." The meeting was announced last week shortly after Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California sent an open letter to the CHRB urging it to suspend all racing at Santa Anita "until the cause or causes of these deaths can be fully investigated."

On Monday, however, the board issued a statement saying the Friday's meeting was scrubbed. According to the board, the discussion of Santa Anita racing will be placed on the board's agenda for April 18, a meeting that will be held at Santa Anita.

No reason was given for the delay.

Tim Ritvo, Stronach's chief operating officer, told Daily Racing Form last week that Santa Anita fully intends to maintain its schedule of racing through the end of the current meet, June 23. The Stronach Group would need to agree to move any future races.
Since December, 23 horses have died resulting from injuries sustained at Santa Anita Race Track. The track experienced record rain for much of the winter, and racing was suspended at the track for much of March while authorities studied the racing surface for possible causes. Experts were brought in to examine the race track for separation, and it was deemed safe.

Races resumed only after the CHRB approved a series of safety measures, including limits on certain types of medications administered to horses.

Hall of Fame Trainer Bob Baffert saddles two runners for the G1 Santa Anita Derby. Hear from him on how Game Winner and Roadster have been preparing for Saturday's Derby Prep race. Tune-in for Race 8 at 3:30PM PT on https://t.co/7YhWIhX9sm pic.twitter.com/xZz8oOU6zP

— TVG (@TVG) April" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/TVG/status... 6, 2019

City News Service, Patch Editor contributed to this report.