Los Alamitos cuts summer meet from 12 days to 10

Los Alamitos received approval from the California Horse Racing Board on Friday to reduce its upcoming summer meeting from 12 racing days to 10 in an effort to ensure all programs draw sufficient horses, track vice-president Jack Liebau said.

Los Alamitos will open its three-week summer meeting on Saturday, June 29, two days later than scheduled. There will be two days of racing on June 29-30, and four-day racing weeks from July 4-7 and 11-14.

“It’s a done deal,” Liebau said. “I think this will work.”

Liebau said there is a possibility the track could add races to individual programs if there is strong support from owners and trainers.

“If we can run more races, we’ll run more races,” he said.

Earlier this week, Liebau said Los Alamitos is focused on carding four programs from July 4-7 on a week in which many people will have a four-day vacations in conjunction with the Fourth of July holiday. Track officials are hoping that business will be strong during those days.

Last summer, Los Alamitos was scheduled to run 12 days. The track ran 11 full days and had one weekday program canceled after two races because of excessive heat.

This year, Santa Anita has run three-day racing weeks since April 12 and is scheduled to do so through the conclusion of the current spring-summer meeting on June 23. Santa Anita has seen a drop in average runners per race this spring since the track enacted tougher restrictions on which horses are allowed to race or train following a series of equine fatalities in recent months.

Through Monday, Santa Anita has averaged 7.15 runners per race since April 12. During a comparable period in 2018, the track averaged 7.55 runners per race and ran 51 more races.

Los Alamitos has customarily run four-day racing weeks since the track was expanded to accommodate daytime Thoroughbred racing in 2014 following the closure of Hollywood Park in 2013.

Los Alamitos does not have a turf course, which has limited the number of horses available to race. In addition, the proximity of the track’s summer meeting to the popular Del Mar summer meeting, which offers higher prize money, has led some owners and trainers to bypass running horses at Los Alamitos entirely.

Del Mar officials told the racing board last week that they are committed to run five days a week for the summer meeting from July 17 to Sept. 2, but may offer fewer races per day, if necessary, to reach that goal.