Santa Anita Postpones Two Racing Cards : Weather: Track officials hope to resume the meeting on Friday, after the surface has dried.

In keeping with the unusual happenings of the strangest winter meeting in years, Santa Anita announced before the improvised 11-race card began Monday that racing for Wednesday and Thursday, normally the next two racing days, had been postponed because of continued rain-related difficulty filling fields.

The next racing is scheduled for Friday, with the two lost days to be made up, probably on Mondays, before the season ends on April 18. The $75,000 Santa Ysabel Stakes, a race for 3-year-old fillies that was to be run Wednesday, might turn up on Friday’s card.

“We could have put together a card for Wednesday with 50 or so horses,” said Cliff Goodrich, president at Santa Anita. “But then we would have been backed up for Thursday’s card, with a probable shortage of horses.

“Rather than start something that would have led to additional problems a day or two down the road, we decided to wait until Friday. The weather forecast is the best I’ve heard for some time, but I’ll believe it when I see it.”

There has been about 20 inches of rain at Santa Anita since the meeting opened on Dec. 26, severely restricting the availability of the main track during morning training hours and forcing suspension of all turf racing since Jan. 1.

Monday, the main track was closed to workouts as superintendent Steve Wood’s crew worked to make the surface race-ready for the afternoon’s abbreviated card. The training track, which was overloaded with workouts last week, was used by only nine horses Monday, according to the workout tab.

On Sunday, when a cloudburst hit the track late in the day, the jockeys voted unanimously not to ride in the last race and it was canceled. They were ready to work again after the track was repaired Monday.

The cancellation because of a jockey action of Sunday’s last race is believed to be a first in Santa Anita history.

“I go back about 50 years and I can’t recall any,” steward Pete Pedersen said.

A year ago on the Martin Luther King holiday, Santa Anita drew 33,966 fans and they bet $4.4 million. Monday’s crowd, 17,100, bet $2 million. The total handle Monday, counting off-track betting, was $5.5 million, compared to $9 million a year ago.

Santa Anita has reported that there have been 17 consecutive off-tracks, all of the racing dates since Dec. 27, breaking the track record of 15. But the Daily Racing Form differs, saying its charts indicate all of the races on Jan. 1 were run on fast tracks. That would leave the string of consecutive off-tracks at 13.

“This is the worst period of constant rain that we’ve ever seen,” said Tom Robbins, Santa Anita’s vice president for racing. “Steve Wood has done a superior job in keeping the main track safe to allow us to race in the afternoon, but it has been at some sacrifice in the morning during training.”

The intrepid horseplayers who came to the holiday program Monday might have wondered at times which track announcer they were hearing.

Was that Michael Wrona, the Bay Meadows race caller, doing a Trevor Denman imitation? Or was that Denman, at Santa Anita, imitating Wrona?

Denman is from South Africa and Wrona is an Australian, so their accents are similar, and they shared the announcing duties for the unique card, which featured six live races at Santa Anita and betting on five televised races from Bay Meadows.

Freedom Cry, a 5-year-old mare, scored her first major stakes victory, winning the $158,700 Santa Monica Handicap by six lengths over Devil’s Orchid. Freedom Cry had sunk to the $40,000 claiming ranks in 1991. Undefeated Arches Of Gold, the 4-5 favorite who had never raced on an off track, finishing sixth in the slop after leading for the first half-mile of the seven-furlong race.

Arches Of Gold went into the Santa Monica Handicap with three victories by a total of 17 lengths, but trainer Bob Baffert had considered scratching her from the race.

“She just stopped,” jockey Eddie Delahoussaye said. “I don’t know if she bled or what. She was running very easy. When Chris McCarron’s horse (Devil’s Orchid) came up to her, she was very relaxed. Then I don’t know what happened. She just didn’t respond.”

Freedom Cry, formerly trained by Jerry Dutton, has flourished in Gary Jones’ barn. Last year, she had two victories, two seconds and a third in six tries, and on Jan. 3 she finished second on a drying-out track that was listed as fast at Santa Anita.

“I think Gary changed her style, getting her to come from off the pace,” said Dr. Murray West, who bred Freedom Cry from Wolf Power, a South African champion, and Validation, a Valid Appeal mare.

Jones had considered scratching Freedom Cry about 15 times, the trainer said.

“But she likes an off-track, and she had worked well for the race,” Jones added. “I used stickers (a special type of shoe that helps horses grip a wet track) for the first time at the meet. I don’t believe in them, usually. After the first race, I decided to run.”

Owned by Keith Card of Corona, Freedom Cry earned $91,200 and was timed in 1:21 3/5. She paid $9 as the second betting choice. West sold Freedom Cry as an unraced 2-year-old for $17,000.

“This filly will run on grass, dirt, you name it,” said Alex Solis, who rode Freedom Cry. “The trip was perfect. We came between horses at the three-eighths pole and I got her in the clear and she was rolling.”

Horse Racing Notes

In another stake on the Santa Anita card, Now Showing won the $60,300 Pineapple Express by 2 3/4 lengths over Avant’s Gold. The 5-year-old mare won only twice last year, once on an off track. Her assignment was made easier when Southern Truce ran Sunday instead, winning the San Gorgonio Handicap. . . . Freedom Cry carried 114 pounds in the Santa Monica Handicap, five less than the co-high weights, Devil’s Orchid and Arches Of Gold. . . . Bay Meadows ran five races Monday and imported six from Santa Anita.

A.P. Indy, Best Pal and Sky Classic are the finalists for the Thoroughbred Racing Assn.’s horse-of-the-year award. The winner will be announced Feb. 5 in Los Angeles. A.P. Indy won the Belmont Stakes, Breeders’ Cup Classic and Santa Anita Derby. Best Pal won the Charles H. Strub, Santa Anita Handicap and Oakland Handicap. Sky Classic finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Turf and the Arlington Million.

Other finalists: Eddie Delahoussaye, Kent Desormeaux and Chris McCarron, jockey; Neil Drysdale, Robert Frankel and Ron McAnally, trainer; Golden Eagle Farm, Juddmonte Farms and Allen E. Paulson, owner; Dear Doctor, Fraise, Lure and Sky Classic, male, turf; Flawlessly, Kostrama and Super Staff, female, turf; Missy’s Mirage and Paseana, older filly or mare; Gilded Time, Mountain Cat and River Special, 2-year-old colt; Boots ‘n Jackie, Eliza and Sky Beauty, 2-year-old filly; and Jesus A. Bracho, Freddy Castillo and Rosemary Homeister, apprentice jockey.