Los Alamitos Concludes First Fall Meet
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The first fall Thoroughbred meet at Los Alamitos ended Sept. 21 with average daily all-sources handle of $5,768,238 for 11 days, a 26.3% increase over the 13-day meet a year earlier conducted by Barretts at Fairplex Park.
Combined mutuel handle averaged $4,568,811.64 at Fairplex last year.
"We're happy,'' said Brad McKinzie, general manager of the Los Alamitos Racing Association, in a release. "I would have to say this meet probably outdid our expectations. We thought we'd do well, but we did better than we thought we would, especially with the racing product.
"All in all, it's a second step to where we want to go. This meet was a success any way you want to cut it.''
Average field size increased from 6.99 starters per race during Los Alamitos' eight-day summer Thoroughbred meet in July to 7.73 for the fall season. Purses averaged $278,718 during the fall meet, compared with $248,012 at Fairplex a year ago, according to The Jockey Club Information Systems.
Thoroughbred racing will return to Los Alamitos in December. The 12-day season will begin Thursday, Dec. 4 and continue through Sunday, Dec. 21. Racing will be conducted on a Thursday-Sunday basis.