Smith hopes to resume riding in time for next Saturday's Los Alamitos Futurity

Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith, who has not ridden since Nov. 29, said on Friday that he expects to emerge from a 14-day quarantine forced by a recent coronavirus positive in time to ride Petruchio in the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity on Dec. 19.

Smith tested positive in advance of scheduled mounts at Los Alamitos last weekend, the initial days of the track’s current three-week Los Angeles County Fair meeting.

Smith said he hopes to be cleared to ride the $200,000 Los Alamitos Futurity. The quarantine period ends on Thursday, he said.

“I feel great,” he said. “I have to wait the 14 days anyway and make sure it’s negative. Once it’s up, you have to have a negative test and you’re back in. I think I’ll be able to ride the futurity.

“I never felt that bad. I lost my smell and my taste. I feel really good now.”

Smith said his sense of taste and smell has “just about” returned. He said he had “no clue” how he contracted the virus. Smith, 55, last rode on the final day of the Del Mar autumn meeting.

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Petruchio, trained by Richard Mandella for Perry and Ramona Bass, won a maiden special weight race on turf at Del Mar on Oct. 31 in his fourth start. The Los Alamitos Futurity at 1 1/16 miles will be Petruchio’s stakes debut.

Petruchio was gelded in late summer, after two third-place finishes in maiden special weight races in main-track sprints at the Del Mar summer meeting. Petruchio was second by a neck as the 8-5 favorite in a one-mile maiden race on turf at Santa Anita on Oct. 4 in his first start as a gelding.

By Into Mischief, Petruchio won the Oct. 31 race by 1 3/4 lengths as the 11-10 favorite under Smith.

Mandella said on Friday that he wants to learn whether gelding Petruchio or the surface switch was the leading factor in the maiden race win.

The Los Alamitos Futurity will have a small field. Candidates includes Red Flag, Uncle Boogie, and Spielberg, the first-, second-, and fourth-place finishers in the Grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes at seven furlongs at Del Mar on Nov. 15.

Track officials said the field could increase before entries are taken on Wednesday.

The Los Alamitos Futurity is the leading race on the final week of the track’s meeting, which concludes on Dec. 20. The Santa Anita winter-spring meeting begins on Dec. 26.

First post changes next Friday

Post times will be moved forward 30 minutes on the final four days of the Los Alamitos meeting, with programs starting at 12:30 p.m. on Dec. 17-18 and noon on Dec. 19-20, the track announced on Thursday. The track anticipates adding a race per day, with nine races on weekdays and 10 races on weekends.

This week, weekday programs have had eight races, with nine race on weekends.

Through Thursday, the fourth day of the 11-day meeting, Los Alamitos was averaging nine runners per race compared to 6.94 runners per race at a similar point at the corresponding meeting in December 2019. The growth this year is largely attributable to shippers from Golden Gate Fields, which is not racing because of a coronavirus outbreak in the stable area.