Los Alamitos Handle Up, Attendance Down

With the conclusion of Los Alamitos Race Course's second two-week Summer Thoroughbred Festival July 12, the Cypress, Calif. track saw a 12.7% increase in all-sources handle and a 15.8% uptick in wagering on live races from last year's numbers.



All-sources handle for the eight-day meet was up to $53,778,877 from $47,723,634 in 2014 and wagering on live racing at Los Alamitos was up to $34,233,183 from $29,557,212 last year.



"We put on a better show for two weeks and that's what we can build on," Brad McKinzie, general manager of Los Alamitos' Thoroughbred meets, said of increased field size and, in his opinion, increased quality of racing. "Horsemen can run any kind of horse they have... We put a much, much better product on the racetrack and that led to the 12.7 (% increase). We put out a better product.



"Eighty-five percent of your handle comes from out of state and they're horseplayers. They want to bet and if you put a good product out there, they'll play it. If you don't, they won't."



The only numbers that decreased were Los Alamitos' on-track attendance and handle. Attendance for the eight days dropped 28.4% (from 29,068 to 20,819) and on-track handle fell 4.3% (from $5,579,845 to $5,341,958).



"Building on-track attendance is the toughest part—not just for us, but for everybody." McKinzie said. "On-track attendance is the Achilles' heel of horse racing. We've done everything in the world for people not to come to the races. They can bet at home and watch on TV at home. It's tough. Nobody has the answer, because if they did, we'd just copy them."



After splitting Santa Anita Park's spring meet training title with Peter Miller, Doug O'Neill took the training title at Los Alamitos with five victories, one better than Miller and Bob Baffert. Baffert's four wins came in only seven starts, however, and included the two graded stakes—the Los Alamitos Derby (gr. II) with Gimme Da Lute and the Great Lady M. (gr. II) with Fantastic Style.



The race for the jockey title finished in a four-way tie for first, with Fernando Perez, Mario Gutierrez, Edwin Maldonado, and Santiago Gonzalez all earning six wins apiece.



In other jockey-related news, 10 riders were fined for violating California's new whip rule, which was enacted at the beginning of the meet. Felipe Valdez was the only jockey to be fined twice. Whip fines totaled $2,300 for the meet.