While California has experienced historic rainfall in recent weeks which has caused flooding, evacuations and fatalities, track officials at Cal Expo are hoping to return some form of normalcy to the harness racing community by altering its schedule to beat Mother Nature before she takes her next shot at the Sacramento area. With Thursday the only day without rain predicted through the middle of next week, track General Manger Chris Schick requested and received approval from the California Horse Racing Board to move Sunday's card to Thursday in an attempt to allow the mostly isolated horse population (there are no other tracks in the vicinity for Standardbreds) a chance to race. Cal Expo has been forced to cancel four consecutive programs due to the unprecedented rainfall and hasn't held live racing since December 26. The cancellations have also pushed back the track's stakes schedule multiple weeks, but barring a rash of future issues the California Sire Stakes and other events will be contested in the coming months. According to Schick, the issue with racing has more to do with the starting car being able to safely get around the track than the actual racing surface. "It's hard. We get the car out there at 1pm and it doesn't go as hoped. We can only guess whether it will be better in three hours," said Schick, who is in awe of the recent events. "Just when you think you've seen everything they throw this at you." While having stone dust or limestone material would allow the track to better handle the weather issues, Schick, who runs the meet under the Watch & Wager banner, only leases the track and isn't permitted to alter the surface, which also hosts Thoroughbred races during the year. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter To Watch & Wager and the California Harness Horseman's Association's credit, they handed out $469 per horse to all who were entered recently -- totaling $100,000 -- from the purse account to help offset the lost income suffered by the loyal horsepeople who travel out to California for the November to April meet. In addition, mostly for the sake of allowing horses to get raced, Cal Expo will race on Thursday despite wagering being unavailable at California sites. Schick is optimistic about getting the card in on Thursday and is simply hoping for the best when it comes to Friday. "It is going to rain most of the day Wednesday but we plan to work on the track that night and all day Thursday. It is supposed to be in the 60s and dry Thursday, so hopefully things work in our favor and we get that card in," said Schick. While an inch of rain is expected to fall throughout the day on Friday, the good news is the advance forecast for the following weekend is more kind, with partly sunny skies and no more than a 37% chance of precipitation.