Three Stakes Highlight Los Alamitos Summer Meet
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Photo: Benoit Photo
Accelerate won the 2016 Los Alamitos Derby, which returns July 15 as a grade 3 event
Three stakes—including a pair of graded events—worth $450,000 will highlight the summer meeting at Los Alamitos Race Course.
The eight-day season will begin July 6 and continue through July 16.
The richest event on the calendar is the $200,000 Los Alamitos Derby (G3), which was offered during the Los Angeles County Fair meet in the fall of 2016.
Downgraded from a grade 2 by the American Graded Stakes Committee in December, the race for 3-year-olds at 1 1/8 miles will be contested July 15, and has been won by Shared Belief (2014), Gimme Da Lute (2015), and Accelerate (2016) in recent years.
BALAN: Accelerate Finds Just Enough in Los Al Derby
The other graded race is the $150,000 Great Lady M. Stakes (G3) for fillies and mares (3-year-olds and older) at 6 1/2 furlongs.
Named in honor of the multiple graded stakes winner trained by Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, the Great Lady M., which will be run July 8, was offered during Los Alamitos' spring meet last April after being contested previously during the summer in 2014-15.
The three winners of the Great Lady M. are Doinghardtimeagain (2014), Fantastic Style (2015), and Finest City, who scored in 2016 prior to her victory in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1) Nov. 4. The latter win enabled Finest City, who is owned by Seltzer Thoroughbreds and trained by Ian Kruljac, to earn the Eclipse Award as the female sprint champion.
BALAN: Finest City Surges By to Win Great Lady M.
The other stakes on the schedule is the $100,000 Bertrando for California-breds (3-year-olds and older). Won a year ago by Boozer during the spring meet, the one-mile Bertrando will be run July 8.