With no turf racing, officials hope purse increase will attract entries
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
The Los Alamitos two-week December meet opens Friday with overnight purses higher than during the track’s September meet and last year’s December meet. The purse boost continues a yearlong trend at Southern California tracks.
Los Alamitos has scheduled a seven-day season through Dec. 12, with racing Friday to Sunday and next Thursday to Sunday.
Los Alamitos has placed an emphasis on overnight purses over stakes purses for this meet.
A maiden special weight race will be worth $52,000 this month, compared to $46,000 at the Los Angeles County Fair meeting in September or $42,000 at track’s 2020 December meeting. A first-condition allowance race will be worth $55,000 compared to $49,000 in September.
The increases extend to claiming races. A $16,000 claimer for fillies and mares who are non-winners of two will be worth $28,000. The same category had a purse of $21,000 in September and $18,000 last December.
The track enjoyed a bumper December meeting in 2020, with fields averaging 8.7 runners per race. Golden Gate Fields near San Francisco was temporarily closed then because of a coronavirus outbreak among stable personnel.
Los Alamitos is not expected to achieve that average field size this month, but should have solid numbers. Following the Dec. 12 closing day, there is no daytime Thoroughbred racing in Southern California until the opening of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting Dec. 26.
Earlier this year, Los Alamitos averaged 6.7 runners per race at a two-week summer meeting and 6.38 runners per race at the September meeting.
Los Alamitos does not have a turf course, which makes filling races more difficult. Many Southern California stables have emphasized turf racing in recent years, and both Santa Anita and Del Mar ran more turf races than dirt races at their fall meets.
The highlights of the Los Alamitos December meeting are the Grade 1 Starlet for 2-year-old fillies on Saturday, and the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity for 2-year-olds on Dec. 11. Both races are run at 1 1/16 miles and are worth $300,000.
Scott Craigmyle is the track’s new director of racing, and Jordan Castaneda the new racing secretary. They also direct the track’s year-round evening meeting of Quarter Horses and lowel-level Thoroughbred races.
Bob Moreno, a longtime racing official at California tracks, had worked as racing secretary for the Los Alamitos Thoroughbred meetings since they began in 2014 following the closure of Hollywood Park in 2013. Moreno, who was involved at Los Alamitos as recently as September, was informed earlier this fall that he would not be retained.
Six fillies expected for Starlet
Three stakes winners and three stakes-placed runners are among the six probable starters in Saturday’s Grade 1 Starlet Stakes for 2-year-old fillies. The $300,000 Starlet Stakes is run at 1 1/16 miles.
Trainer Bob Baffert, who has won the last four runnings of the Starlet, will start the stakes winners Eda and Grace Adler and the stakes-placed Benedict Canyon.
Cairo Memories, the winner of the Surfer Girl Stakes on turf at Santa Anita on Oct. 3, will have her main-track debut in the Starlet. Cairo Memories was ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 5.
Desert Dawn, third in the Grade 2 Chandelier Stakes at Santa Anita in October and sixth in the BC Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 5, and Tonito’s, second to Eda in the Desi Arnaz Stakes at Del Mar on Nov. 13, are the other expected runners.
Beyond Brilliant a free-runner
Beyond Brilliant, who won the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar last Saturday, reminded trainer John Shirreffs and jockey Kent Desormeaux of his preferred running style in a workout earlier this year. Working in company with a stablemate, Beyond Brilliant wanted to be alone.
“Kent worked him and we tried to go with another horse,” Shirreffs recalled last Sunday. “Kent said he was pulling his arms out until he got a length in front of the other horse and then he relaxed.”
Beyond Brilliant led throughout an allowance race on turf at Del Mar in September, the first time Desormeaux was aboard the colt. In the Grade 2 Twilight Derby at Santa Anita on Oct. 31, Beyond Brilliant stalked the pace and was second in the stretch before finishing third.
In the month between the Twilight Derby and the Hollywood Derby, Shirreffs knew Beyond Brilliant’s best chance would be from the front.
“We made sure we took enough time with him with a little longer gallops,” he said.
Owned by Lee and Susan Searing, Beyond Brilliant led shortly after the start of the Hollywood Derby and held off a determined kick by Santin to win by a neck.
Beyond Brilliant will face older horses in longer turf races in 2022.
“I wouldn’t think a distance would make much of a difference with him,” Shirreffs said.