Former Los Alamitos trainer Elmer January dies at 97
Elmer January, who trained a stable of primarily Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos from the 1950s until 2020, died on March 1 at his ranch in Sanger, Calif., days after his 97th birthday.
January’s death was announced by Los Alamitos.
A native of Vernon, Texas, who served in World War II, January won 370 Quarter Horse races and 141 races with Thoroughbreds at Los Alamitos. He won the $307,000 Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Breeders’ Futurity with Primo High in 1996. Primo High was later fifth in the $1.05 million Los Alamitos Million Futurity that year.
January began training after World War II and was present at Los Alamitos for its inaugural meeting in 1951.
January also trained briefly in Louisiana, winning a Quarter Horse derby at Evangeline Downs in 1966. At Los Alamitos, some of January’s stakes winners were A Mere First, Best of Me, Classic Tol, and Manus Mark.
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