Los Alamitos handle down 8.3 percent

CYPRESS, Calif. -- Average daily handle at the recently completed eight-day fall Thoroughbred meet at Los Alamitos was down 8.3 percent compared to average handle at the winter meet last year, according to figures from the California Horse Racing Information Management System.

Average handle this year over the two-week meet was $3.85 million, according to CHRIMS, compared to $4.20 million last year over an 11-day meet. Total handle this year for eight days was $30.83 million, compared to $46.25 million last year for the 11 days last year, according to CHRIMS.

The meet concluded Sunday with a slight decline in average number of runners per race as well. In eight days of racing, fields averaged 7.44 runners, compared to 7.5 runners at an 11-week meeting last year.

“I think on a comparative-day basis, which isn’t the best comparison because you’re arbitrarily picking days, we’re generally pleased with the way the meet went," said Jack Liebau, Los Alamitos's president, on Monday.

“We got off to a bad start because of torrential rain. I was pleased that our track performed extremely well under the amount of rain that it took.”

The Dec. 6 opening day program was plagued by more than an inch of rain.

During the same week, the track was told by the American Graded Stakes Committe that the Los Alamitos Futurity at 1 1/16 miles had been downgraded from a Grade 1 race this year to a Grade 2 in 2019. Liebau said track officials will discuss the purse of the 2019 race in coming months. The race was worth $300,000 this year, and must be worth $200,000 or more to be rated as a Grade 2.

“One of the big disappointments was that the race had been demoted,” Liebau said. “I don’t know how to explain that. I don’t know when it’s a Grade 2 that we’ll be able to secure the same caliber of horses. It was a chance to win a Grade 1.

“I don’t know whether we’ll maintain it at $300,000, which is required for a Grade 1 race.”

The 2019 winter meeting will still have a Grade 1 race in the $300,000 Starlet Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles.

The track will host three meetings in 2019 – a summer meeting in June and July that will start on June 27, the Los Angeles county fair meeting in September, and a winter meeting next December.

During the meeting that ended on Sunday, jockeys Tyler Baze and Heriberto Figueroa finished in a tie for the title with eight wins. Figueroa, an apprentice, won or tied for first at all three meetings at Los Alamitos this year.

There was a three-way tie among trainers at the winter meeting, with Bob Baffert, Doug O’Neill, and Hector Palma each winning four races.

There is a 10-day gap in the Southern California Thoroughbred schedule. Santa Anita opens its winter-spring meeting on Dec. 26.

--additional reporting by Matt Hegarty