Three Los Alamitos stakes scheduled for next week

Los Alamitos nears the halfway point of its two-week December meeting on Sunday, the third day of the seven-day season.

The final week of the season is scheduled from Thursday through Dec. 12, a span that includes three stakes races led by the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity at 1 1/16 miles on Dec. 11. There are two $100,000 races for statebred 2-year-olds at a mile – Friday’s Soviet Problem Stakes for fillies and Sunday’s King Glorious Stakes.

Big Switch and Big Novel, trained by John Sadler for owner and breeder George Krikorian, are candidates for the Soviet Problem after finishing first and second in the $176,000 Golden State Juvenile Fillies for statebreds at seven furlongs at Del Mar on Nov. 5.

Both fillies worked five furlongs in 1:01.60 at Santa Anita on Friday. They did not work together, according to Sadler.

Sadler said he will run one of the Krikorian-owned fillies in the Soviet Problem, as well as Dendera, the winner of an allowance race for statebred fillies at a mile on turf at Santa Anita on Oct. 22.

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Santa Anita has scheduled six days of racing during the holidays – Dec. 26 and 27 and Dec. 30 to Jan. 2. The Dec. 30 racing date was added to the schedule in late November.

The track said in a statement on Friday that an 11-race program is scheduled for Dec. 26, beginning at 11 a.m., followed by a 10-race program on Dec. 27, beginning at 11:30 a.m.