Los Alamitos asks CHRB to increase dates allotment for 2020

Los Alamitos on Saturday asked the California Horse Racing Board to reverse a decision on 2020 racing dates made in August that reduces Los Alamitos’s allotment from eight weeks of racing in 2019 to four next year. The board is scheduled to discuss and possibly take action on 2020 racing dates at its monthly meeting Thursday, according to the meeting agenda.

Los Alamitos is tentatively scheduled to run two weeks from June 27 to July 5 and two weeks from Dec. 3-13. The Los Angeles County Fair season, run at Los Alamitos this year for three weeks in September, is scheduled to encompass the first week of the June-July meeting and the entirety of the December meeting.

Los Alamitos officials are seeking to restore the Los Angeles County Fair dates to three weeks there in September 2020 and host a third week of racing in December. The track wants to operate the summer and December meetings under its own license and the September meeting under the county fair license.

The racing board awarded most of the Southern California racing dates for 2020 at its August meeting at Del Mar. The board did not finalize dates for Los Alamitos, the Northern California Thoroughbred circuit, or harness racing.

The board will hold a dates committee meeting on Thursday, two hours before the full meeting.

Santa Anita is scheduled to run weekends in September 2020 during dates previously run as the Los Angeles County Fair. Track officials and executives with the Thoroughbred Owners of California told the racing board in September that Santa Anita could generate much-needed purse revenue for its autumn meeting if allowed to expand the season from its current late September start.

According to the 2020 racing dates approved in August, the Los Alamitos December meeting would end Dec. 13 and the Santa Anita winter-spring meet would begin Dec. 26. Los Alamitos is asking the board to extend its meet to Dec. 20, giving the track four additional racing dates.

In a letter sent to the CHRB on Saturday signed by Los Alamitos track owner Ed Allred and vice president Jack Liebau, Los Alamitos pointed out that the meeting before the Santa Anita winter-spring meet ended as late as Dec. 22 over the past 12 years.

“It should be noted that some owners and trainers enjoy more success at Los Alamitos than they do at either Santa Anita or Del Mar,” the letter stated. “Thus, added opportunities to run at Los Alamitos would be of importance financially to those owners and trainers.”

The letter said the plan to give Los Alamitos only two weeks of racing in December 2020 would jeopardize the running of the Grade 2 CashCall Los Alamitos Futurity and Grade 1 Starlet Stakes because such a short meeting would make it difficult to generate sufficient purse revenue. The Los Alamitos Futurity and Starlet Stakes each was worth $300,000 in 2018.