Drayden Van Dyke, who rode Stormy Liberal, said he hit a wet spot and lost his action in the first race today at Santa Anita, in which he lost narrowly.

"On the turf kind of wet right there," he said in an interview with Britney Eurton of TVG. "Hit a bad spot, he almost lost his whole balance, his stride. Definitely cost me the race. Came back all right, so that's the main thing."

Santa Anita has had problems with horses slipping at the quarter pole in races following rain storms. For one example, dial up the video of The Tulip on Feb. 1, 2018. Van Dyke, ironically, was on her, too.

Today is the first day of racing since Monday. There was plenty of rain earlier this week but the course was fir enough for winner Eddie Haskell, who sped five furlongs in 55.06 seconds.