Los Alamitos spotlights sizzling star California Chrome during its short and sweet fall meet this season. The stand will run eight glorious days starting on December 8 and ending on December 18. The first weekend of the meeting will highlight some opulent stakes but the racing secretary at Los Alamitos has already written a stakes just for California Chrome.
Juveniles take center stage in the majority of the stakes that Los Alamitos spotlights. The $300,000-guaranteed Los Alamitos CashCall Futurity and the $300,000-guaranteed Starlet, for fillies, will be renewed on Saturday, December 10.
On December 17, Los Alamitos spotlights the $100,000 guaranteed Soviet Problem Stakes for fillies at a mile and closing day males will test skills in a similar event.
Los Alamitos spotlights the Winter Challenge Stakes. It will be run December 17 at one and one-sixteenth miles with a purse structure designed to entice owners and trainers to run against California Chrome. The details are still being worked on but the race is likely to be worth more than $100,000.
California Chrome is scheduled to start in the Pegasus World Cup before going to stud at Taylor Made Farm in Kentucky in 2017 and he is likely to face some major players.
The race is not expected to include Arrogate, the winner of the BC Classic, or Melatonin, who won two Grade 1 races on dirt this year. That still will leave the gate wide open for Grade 1 winners throughout the world.
California Chrome has been based at Los Alamitos while in training in Southern California since early 2014 but has never raced at the Orange County track.
After his loss to Arrogate California Chrome, seems to have picked up where he left off.
In his drill on November 26, California Chrome was clocked in a restrained :46.60 and was deemed ready to go by his connections. He reportedly has gained weight since the Breeders’ Cup Classic and that is always a good sign. In California Chrome’s work on Saturday December 3, the star was clocked in a solid 1:00 2/5.
Amazingly, I was involved with one of the original Los Alamitos fall meetings back in 1977. I had recently moved to Southern California and had joined the Daily Racing Form. I was basically in seventh heaven to have access to the luxurious press box and all of the other amenities. In those days, the track was an abbreviated configuration but that has changed.
It is now a one-mile oval. The 1,380-foot homestretch is the longest in America. It is a soft surface and kind to the horses.
With most of the big barns licking their wounds and getting ready for the winter meeting at Santa Anita, Los Alamitos spotlights daily action for the ‘little guy’ in racing.
Sure, the big barns will still sweep in and competed in the most opulent races of the meeting. Guys like Bob Baffert and Doug O’Neill must do what their owners want but there is still left enough for the masses.
Last year during this Alamitos meeting Jorge Periban sent out only seven horses and he met four of them back in the winner’s circle. Dean Peterson and Paul Aguirre, both horsemen that work hard, saddled 10 horses combined at the meet last year and six of them won.
Los Alamitos spotlights younger riders and gives them a chance to show their wares going into the Anita meet as they try to gain some momentum. It also gives the less fashionable racing barns a chance to pad the bankroll without having to bang heads with some of the quality barns in the game.
Edwin Maldonado had a big Los Alamitos last year guiding twelve winners home first. He was tied for second in the standings. David Lopez also gained fans winning 10 of his 54 mounts.
Some horses take to Los Alamitos and some don’t like the surface. If runner Mor Spirit, Street Fancy, Stays in Vegas or Found Money shows up in the Los Alamitos entries, get down.
Mor Spirit won the Los Alamitos Futurity at Los Alamitos last year and he returned to work on December 5 at Santa Anita.
One of the main things to remember when playing Los Alamitos this meeting is to give an edge to runners that have either been stabled locally or have worked well over the course. The strip can play fast so adjust the attitude when evaluating quick workouts.
