Los Alamitos Winter Meet to Start Dec. 6
Description:
Los Alamitos winter meet begins Dec. 6 with an eight-day season that features two grade 1 races for juveniles.
A pair of grade 1 races for 2-year-olds highlight the 2018 Winter meet at Los Alamitos. The eight-day season will begin Dec. 6 and continue through Dec. 16. Racing will be conducted on a Thursday-Sunday basis. Post time will be 1 p.m. on weekdays and 12:30 p.m. on weekends.
The $300,000 Starlet Stake (G1) for fillies and the $300,000 Los Alamitos CashCall Futurity (G1) will be run Dec. 8. Both races are at 1 1/16 miles and being offered at Los Alamitos for the fifth time. The two significant races were run previously at Hollywood Park (1981-2013).
Hall of Famer Bob Baffert became the first trainer to win the Starlet and CashCall Futurity in the same year in 2017, capturing the Starlet Stake win with Dream Tree and the Los Alamitos CashCall Futurity—via disqualification—with McKinzie.
Baffert has won all four runnings of the Futurity at Los Alamitos, taking the 2014 renewal with Dortmund , then scoring with Mor Spirit (2015) and Mastery (2016) prior to McKinzie's success.
There will be two other stakes during the two-week season. Both are at one mile and for 2-year-olds bred or sired in California. The $100,000 guaranteed Soviet Problem Stakes for fillies will be run Dec. 15, while the $100,000 King Glorious Stakes for colts & geldings will be contested Dec. 16.
Track gates—including the Clubhouse and Vessels Club—will open at 9:30 a.m. General parking is free with grandstand admission $3 and $2 for seniors 62 and older.
The wagering menu includes the $2 Pick Six, a pair of $1 Pick 4's—races 2-5 and the final four—as well as a pair of Pick 5's—which are 50-cent minimum wagers on the first five races and the last five.
The Pick Six will have the standard 70-30 split with 70% of the pool going to those tickets with six winners and the remaining 30% going to tickets with five of six winners.
Entries for the opening day card will be taken Dec. 3.