Racing returns after holiday break

Horseplayers from coast to coast will be raring to go today after racing was completely dark the past two days because of the holiday.

Santa Anita’s highly anticipated day-after-Christmas opening will be the main attraction.

However, two large Pick 6 carryovers at Hawthorne ($227,138) and Aqueduct ($150,027) might actually be bigger news. Aqueduct has not raced in 11 days, and the Hawthorne Pick 6 has not been hit in 20 programs.

Today’s Santa Anita overnight lists 103 horses in nine races. That is nearly double the number of entries we saw at Hollywood for an eight-race card during the last two weeks of its meet.

A dispute between the Thoroughbred Owners of California and four account wagering deposit companies blocked much of the out-of-state wagering on Hollywood races. This caused purse cuts, which led to smaller fields as horsemen waited for Santa Anita and its larger purses.

This year’s Santa Anita meet has to be better than last year. Drainage problems with its Cushion Track led to 11 canceled days of racing.

A new Pro-Ride surface was installed before the Oak Tree meet, which hosted the 2008 Breeders’ Cup.

Even the harshest critics of synthetic surfaces must credit Pro-Ride with two major successes. It led to a record number of foreign entries for the Breeders’ Cup. Plus, the track has drained perfectly this winter even with heavy rains pelting the Arcadia, Calif., track. Horses stabled at Santa Anita have not had to miss one minute of training.

Also, one thing we’ve already seen about synthetic surfaces is when it does rain and races are taken off the turf, there are far fewer scratches thus preserving field sizes.

The Grade I Malibu Stakes is the opening day feature. Into Mischief is the 2-1 morning-line favorite, but I like Colonel John for a minor upset.

• RACE BOOK NOTES — The Las Vegas Hilton joins Lucky’s, the Palms and Wynn Las Vegas in offering a 2009 Kentucky Derby future book. The favorites at the Hilton are Old Fashioned (25-1) and Pioneer of the Nile (30-1). … Belated congratulations to Dave Snock, the new race and sports book manager at Planet Hollywood. … The PH, along with other casinos such as the Hilton and Station Casinos, are scheduled to give out a 2009 Santa Anita calendar today with a $20 race bet. … As of press time, we had not received confirmation of a signed contract between the Nevada Pari-Mutuel Association and Santa Anita. If there is a contract delay, for any reason, Nevada race books will be booking Santa Anita wagers instead of going through the national pari-mutuel system.

Richard Eng’s horse racing column is published Friday. He can be reached at rich_eng@hotmail.com.