Great Lady M. Tops Summer Los Alamitos Stakes Program

Three stakes—including a pair of graded events—worth $450,000 highlight the summer Thoroughbred meet at Los Alamitos Race Course.

The seven-day season begins June 25 and continues through July 5. Racing will be conducted Friday-Sunday (June 25-27) the first week and Friday-Monday (July 2-5) the second. Post time will be 1 p.m.

Over the year, Los Alamitos also offers an evening mixed meet of Quarter Horses and lower-level Thoroughbreds.

The richest event on the summer afternoon calendar is the $200,000 Great Lady M. Stakes (G2) for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs. Captured by KMN Racing's Sneaking Out , a Jerry Hollendorfer trainee, in 2020, the Great Lady M. will be offered July 5.

Besides Sneaking Out, the five other winners of the Great Lady M. at Los Alamitos are Doinghardtimeagain  (2014), Fantastic Style  (2015), Eclipse Award winner Finest City  (2016), Skye Diamonds  (2017), and Marley's Freedom  (2018-19).

The other graded race is the $150,000 Los Alamitos Derby (G3), won a year ago by the Bob Baffert-trained Uncle Chuck , owned by Karl Watson, Mike Pegram, and Paul Weitman. Baffert has won the 1 1/8-mile contest for 3-year-olds five times since daytime Thoroughbred racing returned to Los Alamitos in 2014, including the last four renewals. This year's race is July 3.

Before Uncle Chuck, the Derby was won by Shared Belief  (2014), Gimme Da Lute  (2015), Accelerate   (2016), eventual 3-year-old champion West Coast   (2017), Once On Whiskey  (2018), and Game Winner   (2019).

The other stakes race on the schedule is the $100,000 Bertrando Stakes, formerly run as the Soi Phet Stakes, for 3-year-olds and up, bred or sired in California. The one-mile race will be run June 26.

The Soi Phet honors the California-bred gelding who won five stakes at Los Alamitos prior to his retirement in the summer of 2019.

The complete stakes schedule: