Los Alamitos: Influx of 2-year-olds next month should ease horse shortage

CYPRESS, Calif. – After a week lost to wet weather from Feb. 28 to March 2, Los Alamitos resumed its mixed meeting for Quarter Horses and lower-level Thoroughbreds this weekend, filling races without difficulty but still coping with small fields.

The track races from Friday through Sunday. This weekend, there were 59 horses entered in eight races for Friday, 60 in eight races for Saturday, and 59 entered for nine races Sunday. There are 12 races for Thoroughbreds racing for claiming prices of $5,000 or less, and 13 races for Quarter Horses at a variety of levels.

Los Alamitos announced Feb. 28 that it would not run that weekend because of days of rain. At the time, the track had yet to complete entries for the March 2 program.

Los Alamitos runs a year-round meeting. In past years, the track has struggled to fill races in the first few months of the year, after many horses are rested after the conclusion of the race meeting from the preceding year and before 2-year-olds begin racing in April.

In the first two months of 2013, the track averaged 6.41 runners in 251 races for both breeds. Through Feb. 23, the average was 6.32 runners in 184 races. The entire 2013 meeting, which ran through Dec. 22, had an average of 6.7 runners per races for both breeds.
Aside from the missed weekend from Feb. 28 to March 2, the track did not race from Jan. 17-19 while the racetrack was expanded from five-eighths of a mile in circumference to a mile.

In late January, approximately 500 Thoroughbreds formerly based at Hollywood Park moved into the Los Alamitos barn area for year-round training. The track will host two daytime Thoroughbred meetings in July and December.

In coming weeks, field sizes are expected to improve. The first 2-year-old race will be April 11, according to racing secretary Ron Church.
“January through April is always a slow time,” Church said. “As the 2-year-olds get back, we’re in good shape.”

The barn area currently houses 500 horses, a number expected to swell to 700 by the first of May. There will be a further infusion of runners after the summer when racetracks in the Pacific Northwest conclude their Quarter Horse meetings.