Santa Anita-Down Hill 6.5F races are back
 

https://www.santaanita.com/press-rel.../#.YTkf7J1KiUl


“Our fans, horsemen and Eddie Delahoussaye himself have told us they’d love to see a return to racing down this European-style course which has been unique to Santa Anita for more than six decades,” said Aidan Butler, Chief Operating Officer, Racing Operations for 1/ST Racing. “The Eddie D will be one of four turf sprint stakes to be run on the Camino Real hillside turf course throughout our Autumn Meet.”

Great news. The other sprints were better than nothing but 6 and 1/2 down the hill are the best

It always blew my mind how many times a horse with a huge lead got swallowed up inside the 1/8th pole on that course. I hadn't bet Santa Anita in ages, when did they stop using the downhill turf course?

Late March of 2019, when SA was having the breakdown problems. One of the breakdowns occurred at the dirt crossing, didnt look good, and due to the high breakdowns that winter/spring they shut the 6.5F hill down, except the SJ Cap race at 1 & 3/4 miles run each spring. They did run 1 &1/4 and 1&1/2 races, but not the sprints.

when it is raining and they run maiden races, many horses have trouble trying to jump the slop ...

If there's rain, they will move or cancel these races. The problem with slop has been known for 30 years since River Drummer skidded and broke down crossing the slop.

Have never seen them run down the hill in the slop. Races always pulled off, if there is a hint of rain.

I understand also that it will be only stakes races and allowance races that will be run down the hill at 6.5f. So at least for this fall season, maiden turf sprints would be run out of the backstretch chute.

Glad they are back. One breakdown on the crossing can change everything.

A 6 year-old (the grey #4 Jetovator) running in the Sensational Star stakes almost goes down when they first hit the dirt. It is almost like the first turn of a greyhound race, you hope the ones you bet on make it through without getting taken out of the race.

This isn't going to be a popular opinion in the racing industry, but I think there's enough evidence that crossing over dirt AT TOP SPEED is really dangerous. Just watch horses do it- not only in the downhill races, but even in the 6f and 6 1/2 furlong flat races. When the horses cross that dirt a lot of them abruptly change strides.

There's nothing wrong with the SA hillside course, or its backstretch chute, for long distance races. When they cross the dirt in a 1 1/2 mile race, they do it running a 25 second quarter or something. It's no big deal. But when horses are sprinting, it's dangerous.

Unwritten Code on Saturday looked like he might go down as he stumbled hitting the dirt. I really do think this is a safety hazard.

Unwritten Code looked like after dirt going back onto turf.

If they were worried about that, they wouldn't have added a second crossing at the far end of the backstretch.