Santa Anita Park canceled its eight-race card on Thursday after severe weather on Wednesday night and Thursday morning left the Cushion Track surface in poor condition.

Rain is forecast for the region through Sunday. The track is scheduled to card four of the eight Sunshine Millions races on Saturday.

"We received an inch and a half of rain overnight and we got hit with two inches of hail early this morning," said Santa Anita President Ron Charles. "We had a good seal on the track and we were actually in pretty good shape until the hail hit at 5 a.m. Obviously, we are hoping to get a break in this weather pattern and we’re concerned about being able to run our Sunshine Millions races here on Saturday. We will assess the condition of the track on a day-to-day basis and we’re just hoping conditions will improve to the extent that we’ll be able to run."

Charles also noted that Santa Anita is anxious to amend the surface with the Australian-based Pro-Ride polymer binder.

"We will have the necessary material in place here over the weekend and we are confident that barring weather problems, once this project is undertaken it can be completed in a very short time period," said Charles. "Again, we are at the mercy of the weather. If we can get dried out, we can get to work on this and we firmly believe this will fully address our drainage problems and promote a kinder racing surface for the remainder of this meet."

The cancellation is the fourth during the current meeting. Racing was canceled from January 5-7 following heavy rains that left the Cushion Track surface uneven.