Los Alamitos to race 10 days in September

The Los Angeles County Fair meeting at Los Alamitos next month will have 10 days of racing over three weeks from Sept. 6 to 22.

The condition book for the county fair meeting was released on Wednesday. The track is planning three-day racing weeks on Fridays through Sundays from Sept. 6-8 and 13-15, and a four-day week from Sept. 19-22.

The track was allotted 12 days of racing for the county fair meeting, but will not run the first two Thursdays, which were part of the original schedule. Track vice president Jack Liebau said on Wednesday that a four-day racing week at the end of the meeting could give horses that race on the first week a chance to return.

During its three-week summer meeting, which ran from June 29 to July 14, Los Alamitos was scheduled to run 12 days, but ran nine. The track canceled racing on the first two days of the meeting – June 27-28 – and was unable to draw sufficient entries for the July 11 program.

Earlier this year, Santa Anita canceled racing on nine Thursdays in the spring because of concern over an adequate number of race-ready horses in Southern California. The current Del Mar meeting is being run on a five-day-per-week basis, but the track has carded fewer races on some days to keep that schedule intact.

Del Mar and Santa Anita officials have indicated they plan to run largely four-day racing weeks this fall.