Field size most important number at Los Alamitos meet

CYPRESS, Calif. – The two-week Los Alamitos meeting that begins Friday will have eight races on opening day, seven days of racing through the end of the meet Dec. 15, five stakes, and two graded stakes for 2-year-olds that annually draw leading runners in the division.

The brief season serves as a transition from the Del Mar autumn meeting, which ended Sunday, and opening day of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting on Dec. 26. While those tracks have turf courses, which are used extensively, Los Alamitos races only on dirt.

Even without the benefit of turf races, which often draw larger fields than dirt races, Los Alamitos racing secretary Bob Moreno is hopeful he can draw adequate entries to hold eight or nine races per day.

There is a direct relationship between field size and betting handle. The December 2018 meeting at Los Alamitos averaged 7.44 runners per race, slightly less than 7.54 runners at the 2017 meeting. Field size at the July and September meetings earlier this year declined compared to 2018.

Those declines mirror reductions in field sizes at Del Mar and Santa Anita in the last year at a time when California racing officials have implemented tougher restrictions on which horses are eligible to race or train following a series of equine fatalities at Santa Anita in the early months of this year.

Friday’s eight-race program will have a maximum of 65 starters before late scratches.

Moreno often draws from lower-level claiming races and frequently uses races with conditions for claiming horses that have not won two races, or have not won a race since a specific date.

There is a possibility of rain this weekend, which could reduce field sizes. Last weekend, Moreno was quick to mention the track at Los Alamitos dries very quickly.

“All I’m hoping for is that it rains only a little bit, and not a lot,” he said. “This track is the best track in the country, especially in California. It can rain Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and we would be fast on Friday.”

Overnight purses are the same as for the 2018 winter meeting, with maiden special weight races worth $40,000 and a first-condition allowance race worth $45,000. While those purses are not as high as similar races at Del Mar and Santa Anita, the maiden special weight races in particular often draw good-sized fields.

The first weekend is highlighted by three graded stakes at 1 1/16 miles – Saturday’s Grade 1 Starlet Stakes, a $300,000 race for 2-year-old fillies; Saturday’s Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity for 2-year-olds, which is worth $200,000; and Sunday’s Grade 3 Bayakoa Stakes, a $100,000 race for fillies and mares.

The Bayakoa Stakes was not run in 2018 and must be contested this year to retain its graded status.

In its last few runnings, the Bayakoa has drawn small fields, but Moreno said he was pleasantly surprised to have 17 nominations as of last weekend.

In the announcer’s booth, Michael Wrona will describe the action. Wrona will be the full-time announcer for the daytime Thoroughbred meetings at Los Alamitos in 2020 and for year-round nighttime Quarter Horse and lower-level Thoroughbred meetings beginning on Dec. 27. Wrona replaces Ed Burgart, who will be retiring as the Los Alamitos announcer.