Grecian Fire, Soi Phet expected for Bertrando Stakes

The stakes winners Grecian Fire and Soi Phet are among the expected starters in Saturday’s $100,000 Bertrando Stakes at a mile for California-breds on the opening day of the Los Alamitos meeting.

Grecian Fire won the Grade 3 All-American Stakes at Golden Gate Fields on May 27. Soi Phet, 11, won the Bertrando in 2014 and last year. This is scheduled to be his final start, trainer Leonard Powell said last weekend.

The field is also expected to include King Abner, who was second in the Grade 3 Steve Sexton Mile at Lone Star Park on April 28 and a troubled third in an allowance race with an $80,000 claiming option at Santa Anita on June 15.

The Bertrando Stakes is the first of three stakes at the 10-day Los Alamitos summer meeting, which runs through July 14. The richest race of the meeting is the Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes, a $200,000 race for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs on July 6.

Review panel announced

The panel of veterinarians and stewards that will review entries at the Los Alamitos summer meeting will have a slightly different composition than the group that served in a similar capacity for the final two weeks of the Santa Anita spring-summer meeting.

The Los Alamitos panel will consist of California equine medical director Rick Arthur, state veterinarian Tim Grade, chief steward Darrel McHargue, steward Grant Baker, and safety steward Jon White. Arthur, Grande, and McHargue were part of the Santa Anita panel.

Baker was a steward at Santa Anita, while White, who has served as a steward at tracks throughout the West, was not a racing official at Santa Anita. White made the morning line there.

For the first two days of the Los Alamitos meeting, McHargue will not participate in the review, according to a California Horse Racing Board spokesman.

The panel was created this month after a series of equine fatalities at Santa Anita and was put in place to review medical, training, and race records of horses entered to race. The panel has the ability to scratch a horse deemed unfit to participate.

In the final six days of racing at Santa Anita, the panel rejected 38 entries, including 14 for Sunday’s program.