Los Alamitos cuts three cards to complete track expansion

CYPRESS, Calif. – Los Alamitos has canceled three days of Quarter Horse racing from Jan. 17-19 to complete the expansion of its main track for future Thoroughbred meetings, the track announced on Tuesday.

The main track is being expanded from its current circumference of five-eighths of a mile to a mile. During the week of Jan. 13, maintenance crews will join the existing track with the expanded section and blend the surface.

The expansion project began on Dec. 10 and is on schedule, track officials said last weekend. This week, the rail posts were being installed.

Los Alamitos will host two Thoroughbred meetings later this year – in July and December – and will house approximately 475 Thoroughbreds for year-round training beginning the week of Jan. 20. The track is becoming a year-round location for Thoroughbred training following the closure of Hollywood Park’s barn area later this month.

There were no major Quarter Horse races scheduled for the week of Jan. 17-19. Time trials for the Los Alamitos Winter Derby and Los Alamitos Winter Championship are scheduled for the weekend of Jan. 25-26.

More bad news for De La Torre

Two trial race winners for the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity on Nov. 24 trained by Jose De La Torre tested positive for clenbuterol, resulting in redistribution of purses, according to rulings issued last weekend by Los Alamitos stewards.

Walked Away and Harrisburg did not run fast enough to qualify for the $1,916,525 final on Dec. 15, which was won by the De La Torre-trained Foose Cash Sr. In late December, De La Torre was informed by track officials to vacate his stalls on the backstretch by the end of the month because of the clenbuterol positives.

Earlier in the fall, De La Torre had two other horses test positive for clenbuterol in Los Alamitos races, resulting in the redistribution of $29,130 in purses. In 2008-09, De La Torre had nine positives for clenbuterol, resulting in a total of $25,000 in fines and a 60-day suspension.

Walked Away and Harrisburg are owned by Junior’s Quarter Horses, which has been ordered to forfeit the $2,200 winner’s shares of each trial race.

De La Torre, whose stable is not currently active, faces a likely fine and suspension for the recent positives, but a hearing has not been held.

◗ Native Tea Rose, fourth in the 2012 All American Futurity, won the first six-figure stakes of her career in Sunday’s $100,000 Charger Bar Handicap for fillies and mares. Trained by Paul Jones for Abigail Kawananakoa, Native Tea Rose will be pointed for the major stakes for older horses in the second half of 2014.