Los Alamitos Handle, Purses Increase

Los Alamitos Race Course ended its second winter Thoroughbred meet Dec. 20 with a 2.3% increase in all-sources pari-mutuel handle over the inaugural season in 2014.

The Southern California track reported total handle for the 12-day meet was $65,710,345, compared with $64,218,080 during last year's meet of the same duration.

"We're happy,'' Brad McKinzie, vice president and general manager of the Los Alamitos Racing Association, said in a release. "Anytime you can get away with being up a little bit is better than being down. I thought the meet got off to a so-so start, but once we ran the (grade I, $300,500) Starlet (Dec. 12) things picked up, and we had a huge (grade I, $350,500, Los Alamitos) Futurity day (Dec. 19)."

Field size increased near the end of the season, with 139 starters over the final two days, but the average of 7.13 starters per race for the entire meet was down slightly from the 7.46 average the previous year.

According to The Jockey Club Information Systems, average daily purses of $343,049 represented an increase over the $288,089 average a year ago.

Santiago Gonzalez, a 32-year-old native of Maracaibo, Venezuela, was the leading rider with 14 wins. Fernando Perez was the top jockey for the three meets-—July, September and December—with 29 wins.

Doug O'Neill was the top trainer for the winter meet and the year at Los Alamitos, finishing with eight and 18 victories, respectively.