Los Alamitos Opens for Afternoon Meet Dec. 4

Following consecutive meets this fall at Santa Anita Park and Del Mar, in which there were no equine fatalities from training or racing, Southern California racing moves to Los Alamitos Race Course for an afternoon meeting that begins Dec. 4.

In addition to its usual evening racing program of Quarter Horses and lower-level Thoroughbreds, the Orange County track will host the Los Angeles County Fair Winter Thoroughbred Meet for a three-week period. Racing will be conducted Friday through Sunday this week before moving to a Thursday-through-Sunday schedule for the final two weeks. Racing then returns to Santa Anita.

Seventy-seven horses and eight also-eligibles were entered in eight races opening day. The featured race is a $48,000 first-level allowance optional claimer for California-breds at 5 1/2 furlongs. All races at Los Alamitos are on dirt and limited to 10 starters.

On Dec. 5 the track stages its richest race, the $300,000 Starlet Stakes (G1)—a stake for 2-year-old fillies expected to be headed by Zedan Racing Stable's Princess Noor, winner of this summer's Del Mar Debutante (G1). Juvenile males are then spotlighted a couple of weeks later on Dec. 19 in the $200,000 Los Alamitos Futurity (G2). Both races are 1 1/16 miles and serve as qualifiers toward next year's Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) and Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) at Churchill Downs, respectively.

The LACF winter meet will also include three other stakes, one of which is graded, the $100,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) Dec. 6. It is another 1 1/16-mile race for older fillies and mares. 

The afternoon meets at Los Alamitos have been the track's safest, but counting its nighttime programs and morning training, 2020 has been a difficult year for the track in terms of equine safety. According to data on the California Horse Racing Board website, there have been 27 racing or training fatalities at Los Alamitos, the majority of which have been Quarter Horses or nighttime Thoroughbreds. By comparison, Santa Anita has 14 and Del Mar three, though the latter only runs two meets of relatively short duration and does not conduct year-round training, as Los Alamitos does.

Last month, the CHRB asked the track for a plan to reduce the number of racehorses receiving corticosteroid intra-articular joint injections there. CHRB officials believe those injections have contributed to the track's fatalities.

Following another agreement between the track and the CHRB this summer that encompassed expanded safety measures, the rate of fatalities slowed there this summer and fall.

Racing at Los Alamitos will continue to be run without spectators due to COVID-19. Licensed owners with horses entered to race will be permitted to attend and are allowed to bring up to two adult guests by contacting Thoroughbred Owners of California. Food and beverage service and pari-mutuel machines are available, according to TOC.