Los Alamitos offers bridge between big meets
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. – Los Alamitos opens Thursday for a fall Thoroughbred meet that hardly resembles the two meets it is squeezed between.
On Monday, Del Mar ended its summer season, which included more than 20 graded stakes. Santa Anita opens Sept. 26 with five Grade 1s on a single card. Between those two, Los Alamitos will run a 10-day fall meet, offering five stakes of minimal significance.
The fall meet is the second of three Thoroughbreds meets Los Alamitos will conduct this year. Daily all-sources handle exceeded $6.7 million during the eight-day summer meet. The winter meet in December includes two Grade 1s – the Starlet for 2-year-old fillies and the Futurity for 2-year-olds.
As for the fall meet that begins Thursday, racing secretary Bob Moreno is charged with shaping the program.
“What I try to do is stay away from what [Del Mar and Santa Anita] have,” Moreno said. “I don’t have the same size fields they have at Del Mar.”
Los Alamitos averaged 7.7 starters last fall; Del Mar averaged 8.8 this summer.
The 2015 Los Alamitos fall meet is one day shorter than 2014 fall, with three fewer stakes. As a peg to Los Alamitos closing day on Sept. 25, Moreno will offer a starter allowance series – five races for claiming horses with purses that total $175,000.
“The premise is for horses to run for more money than they normally would,” Moreno said. “Instead of six-horse fields, you’ll see eight- and nine-horse fields.”
The starter allowance series include two sprints for $8,000 claiming horses (one open and one for females), two routes for $16,000 claiming (open, females) and a route for $25,000 claiming horses (open). Purses are more than double what those horses normally run for.
Meanwhile, a tradition will continue. More than 20 percent of races last fall at Los Alamitos were $20,000 maiden-claiming races, the lowest level on the circuit. The Thursday card includes three maiden-20s; five of the eight races are for maidens.
Beyond placement between major meets, Los Alamitos often faces a power struggle. Del Mar and Santa Anita officials requested Los Alamitos alter conditions of the Contender Stakes for 2-year-olds, suggesting the race somehow would interfere with the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity (which attracted six runners), and Grade 1 FrontRunner on Sept. 26 at Santa Anita.
Los Alamitos relented. The Contender was shortened from one mile to six furlongs, and its purse was trimmed from $100,000 to $75,000. The race will be run Sunday.
Another change this fall is due to Breeders’ Cup preps. In previous years, Fairplex Park bridged Del Mar and Santa Anita, and ended on a Sunday. Los Alamitos will end on a Friday (Sept. 25), allowing Santa Anita to run Breeders’ Cup preps the following day.
The Los Alamitos stakes begin Thursday with the $75,000 Beverly Lewis, a 6 1/2-furlong sprint for 3-year-old fillies. The $75,000 E.B. Johnston Stakes, for California-breds at one mile, is on Saturday, and could include 2014 Los Alamitos Mile winner, Soi Phet. Nominees for the Contender Stakes on Sunday include Mt. Veeder, scratched from the Del Mar Futurity.
A pair of $100,000 stakes restricted to 2-year-olds offered at a Barretts auction will be held Sept. 19 and 20. The nomination list for the Barretts Debutante includes Unbridled Summer, expected to start favored Thursday in race 3 for maidens. Nominations to the Barretts Juvenile include Good For It, runner-up in a fast maiden race at Del Mar.
The betting menu at Los Alamitos includes a pick five on the first five races. With a 14 percent takeout, the 50-cent wager is the least expensive wager in California. During the 2014 fall meet, pick five payoffs exceeded $1,000 eight times; the median payoff was more than $2,000.
Two pick fours, with a 23.68 percent takeout, will be offered on races 2-5, and on the final four races. The pick six covers the final six races, with the same high takeout.
Thursday, the smallest field will race for the highest purse. Five were entered in the $75,000 Beverly J. Lewis Stakes, including a pair trained by Jerry Hollendorfer – Dr. Fager’s Gal and Colerful Bride. The Lewis is the seventh race on an eight-race card.
KEY CONTENDERS
Dr. Fager’s Gal
(Last 3 Beyers: 78-82-74)
◗ Realistically speaking, the Lewis is a drop in class for Dr. Fager’s Gal, third last out in a highly rated second-level allowance at Del Mar. The winner, Ben’s Duchess, returned to finish second in a stakes. Runner-up Unforgettable U returned to win an allowance with a 99 Beyer.
◗ Dr. Fager’s Gal has won two races and $105,380 from six starts.
◗ Regular rider Martin Pedroza is her jockey.
Colerful Bride
(Last 3 Beyers: 56-69-63)
An Iowa-bred making her first start in California, Colerful Bride has won two races and $91,510 from five starts.
◗ Mike Smith is scheduled to ride the filly, sent to Hollendorfer after finishing second in a statebred stakes at Prairie Meadows on Aug. 8.
◗ Colerful Bride is a half-sister to Appealing Tale, recent winner of the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien at Del Mar.
Windy Forecast
(Last 3 Beyers: 77-82-77)
◗ The likely Lewis pacesetter, Windy Forecast benefits from a return to dirt. She finished fourth and fifth in two starts on turf at Del Mar.
She is 2 for 3 on dirt, including a stakes win at Pleasanton. Simon Callaghan trains; Fernando Perez will ride.