Los Alamitos opens a short and sweet meeting on July 6 and the eight-day stand will end on July 16. Two Graded stakes will be offered during the meeting and don’t be shocked if some of the more established barns show up for the big money.
The Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby will be contested the day before the meeting closes. Last year Accelerate won the 2016 renewal for trainer John Sadler.
Fillies and mares will compete in the meet’s most significant race, the Grade II $200,000 Great Lady M. Stakes. It will be run for the fourth time at Los Alamitos on July 8. The six and a half furlong fixture figures to attract Finest City. She is the defending Great Lady M. champ and won and Eclipse Award last year as the best female sprinter.
We’ll run down possible runners in the Great Lady M. in a minute but Los Alamitos has some challenges this year.
Los Alamitos does not have a turf course. When making up the racing menu, the racing secretary relies on a variety of conditional-claiming races to provide opportunities for lower-priced claimers.
Since Santa Anita expanded its meeting because of the close of Hollywood Park, that emporium has been challenged too. In recent months, filling races has been a struggle for Santa Anita, which canceled four days of racing during its spring-summer meeting because of a lack of entries. The track operated on a three-day-per-week basis for the final three full weeks of June.
With that said, Los Alamitos is a chance for the smaller barns to pad the bankrolls while the big barns rest and aim for the upcoming Del Mar meeting.
As far as the Great Lady M. Stakes is concerned Tyler Baze will ride Finest City. Baze was aboard Finest City when she finished second to Vale Dori in the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Stakes on March 18. Her regular rider, Mike Smith, will be on a workman’s holiday riding in New York on Saturday. Trainer Ian Kruljac shipped Finest City to Churchill Downs for the Grade 1 Humana Distaff in May and she was an unlucky loser by a neck. Finest City tried to stretch out last time but caught the star named Stellar Wind. The mare should appreciate the shorter distance of the Great Lady M.
Constellation could be a player in the Great Lady M. The Jerry Hollendorfer student has won half of her ten starts and has trained forwardly at Los Alamitos of late. This filly showed her class winning the Grade 1 La Brea in her 2016 finale and lost a heart breaker in her last race. In that April effort, Constellation was beaten a neck in the Grade 1 Madison at Keeneland.
Summer time lovers may have a vehicle in the Great Lady M. with Cuddle Alert. This miss won a state-bred $100,000 stakes in February but has put in three dull efforts since.
Pretty N Cool could carry the Bob Baffert hopes. The filly was a Grade 2 winner as a juvenile and in her 2017 opener she took the Grade 3 Los Flores Stakes with a 90 Beyer. This miss has trained fast of late and she should give backers at least a brief thrill.
If Shenandoah Queen is going to win the Great Lady M. she will have to run down the speed. Her velocity may be dulled since she has tried routes of late and even though she has won four times, three of those wins came at the minor track Mountaineer.
Avicii could take a shot in the Great Lady M. but she would appear to have her work cut out. The mare has been around the block and back but she has been plying her trade vs. much softer foes of late.
Skye Diamonds could be an interesting entrant in the Great Lady M. She is trained by Bill Spawr, one of the sharpest conditioners on the West Coast. Skye Diamonds was nearly ten lengths clear of the show horse last time in the Grade 3 Adoration Stakes at Santa Anita.
Skye Diamonds was claimed for $40,000 at Del Mar last August by Spawr. Since then, she has won four of six starts, including the Dream of Summer Stakes for California-bred fillies and mares at a mile at Santa Anita on March 26. She has earned over $200,000 since being claimed.
I’ve known Spawr for decades and he is traditionally patient in the mornings and doesn’t ask his horses for speed. Recently, Skye Diamonds has worked very well and her trainer has a positive attitude, Spawr: “She acts better. She’s put on weight, she’s happier, eats more. She finishes stronger, has more muscle tone – everything. I hate to say this, but I think she’s getting better.”
That is a big admission for a guy that keeps his cards close to the vest.
Even if Skye Diamonds does not win at Los Alamitos this weekend, bettors need to pay attention to Spawr. He has had potent Del Mar meetings throughout the decades and that meeting is just around the corner.
Spawr has some ploys that are exceptional and some that bettors can stay away from on a daily basis.
Spawr is really not known as a good trainer with first-time starters but that is misleading. He is three for nine the last five years with debuting Maiden Special Weight runners and another ran second beaten less than a length.
The trainer has a great eye for a purchase and is 25% the last five years with first off the claim runners. Good trainers tinker with things and one of the things they tinker with is blinkers. When Spawr employs blinkers for the first time he has won with 9 of his 32 starters in the last five years and four ran second.
When Spawr drops a horse into a maiden claimer after racing in a Maiden Special Weight race he is explosive. He was won with three of eight of those runners in the last five years and two others ran second.
The time to keep your wallet in your pocket when thinking about betting on a Spawr trainee is when that runner has been away for 180 days or more. Spawr is only three for thirty eight with these types in the last half a decade.
Try to absorb these trends and get lucky moving forward.
