Two-week meet offers ‘traditional' $2 pick six

The Southern California circuit moves to Los Alamitos on Friday for the start of a two-week daytime meet following the blockbuster Del Mar summer season and preceding the stakes-filled Santa Anita autumn meet, which begins Sept. 30.

Los Alamitos runs Friday through Sunday this week, Thursday through Sunday next week, Sept. 22-25. First post on weekdays is 1 p.m., first post on weekends is 12:30. Four stakes, each with a $75,000 purse, are scheduled for the meet, including a pair at one mile – the E.B. Johnston Stakes for Cal-bred horses Saturday, and the Dark Mirage for fillies and mares Sunday.

The stakes schedule also includes the Los Alamitos Special for 3-year-olds and up at a mile and a sixteenth on Sept. 24, and the Capote Stakes for 2-year-olds at 6 1/2 furlongs on Sept. 25.

The main focus of the September meet is wagering. Los Alamitos is the only daytime track in Southern California that offers bettors a traditional pick-six format. The pick six at Los Alamitos is a $2 wager in which 70 percent of the net pool is paid to tickets with six winners or carried over to the next day. The remaining 30 percent goes to consolation payoffs, which are tickets with the next-highest number of winners.

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Otherwise, the betting menu is similar to other California tracks. The pick five on races 1-5 is a 50-cent wager with a 14 percent takeout. The pick-four minimum at Los Alamitos is $1, takeout is 23.68 percent. The wager is offered on races 2-5 and the final four races daily. The menu includes $1 rolling pick threes, and $2 rolling doubles.

Friday’s opening-day card is standard weekday fare at Los Alamitos. Including the race-1 starter allowance, all eight races are claiming caliber. Trainer Reed Saldana entered runners in races 1, 2, 6, and 7, including dropper Vroysky in the opener. His rider is Ramon Vazquez, who finished third in the Del Mar standings and is expected to lead the Los Alamitos standings. Vazquez was the leading rider at the Los Alamitos summer meet.

The most probable winner Friday is a maiden-claiming dropper Vazquez rides in race 3. Spun Beautiful returns from an extended layoff with a series of sharp Los Alamitos workouts for trainer John Sadler. Spun Beautiful is dropping from special-weight maiden races to $20,000 maiden-claiming and should be tough to beat at relatively low odds.

The featured seventh race Friday is an entry-level Cal-bred allowance/optional $20,000 claiming mile in which Dr. Troutman is the one to catch. The 8-year-old front-runner was chewed up chasing a fast pace at Del Mar last out. He returns to Los Alamitos, where he is 2 for 2 in Thoroughbred-only races.

Edwin Maldonado rides for trainer Jonathan Wong.

Others in the Cal-bred allowance include late-runners Funkenstein and Shortman, along with Club Cal, Prodigal Son and Nolongerahobby.