Decent field sizes bring value to card
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The challenge to fill races in California gets tougher in spring at Los Alamitos, which begins the second week of its three-week daytime meet on Friday.
Sandwiched between the drawn-out winter-spring season at Santa Anita and the elite summer meet at Del Mar, Los Alamitos almost always faces an uphill battle. The field-size bonanza last June apparently was an aberration, because reality returned this spring.
Los Alamitos averaged 7.6 starters per race last June, one starter higher than normal for the track. This year, field size opening week returned to 6.6. Los Alamitos racing secretary Randy Valdez knew spring would be a struggle.
“It’s tough, especially coming off the weekend Santa Anita had, with 12 and 12 [races] on Saturday and Sunday and an extra day of racing Monday,” Valdez said.
The Santa Anita closing-week saturation, June 11-15, lowered the number of horses available to run at Los Alamitos.
“We can only do what we can do with our inventory right now,” Valdez said. “Last year was a freak as far as our field size.”
Friday at Los Alamitos, field size is respectable. Four of the eight races attracted eight or more entrants, including race 5, a California-bred allowance with a $20,000 claiming option and a field of 10. The 5 1/2-furlong race is the deepest race on the card, led by last-out runner-up Supernal and front-running horse-for-course Instinct D’ Oro.
In terms of significance, race 1 could be the most relevant. Maiden special weight 2-year-old fillies, including second-time starters Lying Zero and Blockade, sprint five furlongs. Though wagering value in the six-runner field is uncertain, a case could be made that Lying Zero is the most probable winner on the card.
Doug O’Neill trains Lying Zero, a Cal-bred sired by Nyquist and produced by multiple stakes winner How About Zero. Lying Zero finished a distant second as the favorite in her debut May 31, but two sharp gate works since suggest she will produce more speed under Kazushi Kimura. Lying Zero can win with a forwardly placed trip outside speedster Allons Y.
Blockade, trained by Ryan Hanson, finished sixth in her June 11 debut, an effort that was better than it looked. Blockade was not asked for speed, saved ground, finished evenly, and galloped out in front of the field. Blockade should move way up in her second start under Adrian Escobedo.
O’Neill also trains the potential favorite in the featured fifth race for Cal-breds. Supernal finished second with a wide trip against similar last month at Santa Anita. Armando Ayuso rides Supernal, a 5-for-20 gelding entered for the $20,000 tag.
But the horse to catch is Instinct D’ Oro. A speedball who finished second last out in a $12,500 claiming race at Santa Anita, Instinct D’ Oro returns to the Los Alamitos track where he scored blowout wins in 2024 by margins of four and seven lengths. Sergio Morfin trains Instinct D’ Oro, whose rider is Pedro Flores.
Favorites won 11 of 25 races opening week at Los Alamitos.
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