L.A. County Fair meet welcome development for bettors and horsemen
The Los Angeles County Fair meeting at Los Alamitos begins on Friday. Any Thoroughbred racing in Southern California in the next two weeks will be an improvement from September 2020.
Last year, Santa Anita was awarded racing dates for September by the California Horse Racing Board that had been allotted to Los Alamitos for the county fair meeting since 2014.
Santa Anita was originally scheduled to race seven weeks in September and October of 2020, but raced only five.
Santa Anita relinquished one week of action last September to create a break following the Del Mar summer meeting, and then canceled two days of racing the following week because of the lingering effects of a massive wildfire in the mountains near the track that affected air quality.
Los Alamitos sat idle during the afternoon at that time and continued its nighttime meeting.
This year, the county fair meeting resumes for three weeks, through Sept. 26. Santa Anita opens its five-week autumn meeting on Oct. 1.
The schedule for the Los Alamitos meeting closely resembles the schedule of the 2019 meeting, with racing on Fridays through Sundays the first two weeks and Thursday through Sunday from Sept. 23-26.
As many as six of the 10 leading riders at the Del Mar summer meeting are expected to participate – Juan Hernandez, Abel Cedillo, Edwin Maldonado, Kyle Frey, Geovanni Franco, and Jessica Pyfer. Franco, who ranked ninth at Del Mar, is taking a break this week, but is scheduled to the ride the final two weeks of the meeting.
Top 10 riders Flavien Prat, Umberto Rispoli, Joe Bravo, and Kent Desormeaux will not ride regularly at Los Alamitos this month, if at all. Bravo, Prat, and Rispoli are booked to ride at Kentucky Downs this weekend. Desormeaux said in a text message that he plans to be active at Churchill Downs.
Los Alamitos does not have a turf course, which makes field size a longstanding concern on a circuit that has put a greater emphasis on turf racing in recent years. Friday’s eight-race program will have a maximum of 60 starters.
The track’s summer meeting averaged 6.7 runners per race, down from 7.09 at the corresponding meeting in 2020. The 2020 December meeting at Los Alamitos averaged a record 8.7 runners per race with participation from Northern California trainers at an all-time high because of the temporary closure of Golden Gate Fields due to the pandemic.
Purses for overnight races at Los Alamitos this month are considerably higher than in 2019, continuing a recent trend at Del Mar and Santa Anita. Purses are slightly higher in several categories than the Los Alamitos two-week summer meeting in June and July.
The stakes program was scheduled to include five races, but the $75,000 Beverly Lewis Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on Saturday was canceled because of insufficient entries.
The richest race at the meeting is the $100,000 Los Alamitos Special for 3-year-olds and up on Sept. 19. The distance has been reduced to 1 1/16 miles from 1 1/4 miles in 2018 and 2019.
This week, the lone remaining stakes is Sunday’s $75,000 E.B. Johnston Stakes for California-bred 3-year-olds and up at a mile.