Betting handle down 5.7 percent at Los Alamitos summer meet
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Betting handle on races run at the Los Alamitos summer meeting that ended on Sunday declined 5.7 percent compared to the same season in 2025, according to figures compiled by Daily Racing Form.
The nine-day season included the same number of racing days as the 2025 meeting. Handle on races run at Los Alamitos exceeded $25.63 million this year, compared to $27.2 million in 2024.
There were 78 races run at both meetings. Average field size was down from 7.6 runners per race last year to 7.2 this year. Los Alamitos races only on dirt, the lone California track without a turf course.
This year’s handle figure on races run at Los Alamitos was 2.6 percent higher than the 2024 meeting, which had eight days of racing and had wagering handle of more than $24.98 million.
On the track, jockeys Armando Ayuso, Kazushi Kimura, and Edgar Payeras tied for first in the standings with nine wins.
Bob Baffert, Peter Miller, and Genaro Vallejo finished in a tie atop the trainer’s standings with five wins apiece. Baffert won the Los Alamitos Derby for the 10th consecutive year on June 27 with Sabino Canyon.
Ayuso rode Sweet Azteca to a win in Saturday’s Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes for fillies and mares, the third consecutive year the 6-year-old mare has won the track’s leading summertime race. Ayuso also won the first stakes of the meeting, the $100,000 Bertrando Stakes for statebred milers aboard Shea Brennan.
The Del Mar summer meeting begins on July 17 and runs through Sept. 7. Los Alamitos will run a two-week daytime Thoroughbred meeting from Sept. 11 to 20.
There is no daytime Thoroughbred racing in Southern California in the next week. The year-round Los Alamitos evening meeting for Quarter Horses and lower-level Thoroughbreds continues on Saturday.
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