We knew our IdaBet.com players would want to know that the inaugural Spring Thoroughbred meet at Los Alamitos will begin Thursday, April 14. Racing will be conducted on a Thursday-Sunday basis through May 1. Post time will be 2 p.m. Pacific.
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Five stakes – two of them graded – worth a guaranteed $625,000 will be offered before the meet concludes.
The richest of the stakes is the $200,000 –guaranteed Great Lady M. Stakes, a holdover from the Summer Thoroughbred Festival run in July the previous two years.
A Grade II for fillies and mares – 3-year-olds & up – will be run Saturday, April 23. The defending champion is Fantastic Lady, who is owned by Kaleem Shah and trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert.
A longtime fixture at Hollywood Park and run the past two years at Santa Anita, the Grade III, $100,000-guaranteed Los Angeles Stakes will be contested at Los Alamitos for the first time Saturday, April 16.
Scheduled for 5 ½ furlongs, the Los Angeles is for 3-year-olds & up and could attract San Onofre and Wild Dude, the 2-3 finishers in the 2015 renewal.
The L.A. is one of two stakes to be run Saturday. The other is the $100,000-guaranteed Bertrando, a one-mile race for 3-year-olds & up bred or sired in California.
Two stakes being run for the first time complete the schedule.
The $75,000 Surfside goes Sunday, April 24 and the $150,000 California Chrome will be offered Saturday, April 30.
Named for the multiple Grade I winner and 3-year-old filly champion of 2000 trained by Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas for owner-breeder Overbrook Farm, the Surfside is for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs.
Honoring longtime Los Alamitos resident as well as 2014 Horse of the Year, the California Chrome is for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles.
The wagering menu includes the Pick Six, a pair of Pick 4’s – races 2-5 and the final four races – as well as the extremely popular Players’ Pick 5 – a 50-cent minimum wager with a reduced 14% takeout rate which is offered on the first five races.
In addition to the Great Lady M. Stakes, the April 23 program will feature a live money handicapping contest with five seats to the 2017 Daily Racing Form/National Thoroughbred Racing Association National Handicapping Championship in Las Vegas on the line.
The opening day feature – the seventh of eight races – is a $46,000 optional claimer for 3-year-olds & up at one mile. The field of seven is headed by the Shah-owned and Baffert-trained Fusaichi Samurai.
A 4-year-old gelded son of Street Cry and the Storm Cat mare Egyptian Queen, Fusaichi Samurai has won one win in three starts and earnings of $50,200.
Stretched to a mile for the first time March 19, the $260,000 yearling purchase was defeated by a neck as the 9-10 favorite.
Fusaichi Samurai is proven over the Los Alamitos surface. He broke his maiden at first asking during the Winter meet last Dec. 17.
Martin Pedroza, who is very close to a milestone, has the call on Fusaichi Samurai.
Pedroza, 50, enters the Spring meet two victories away from becoming the winningest thoroughbred jockey at Los Alamitos.
The Panamanian native enters the season with 85 victories, one fewer than leader Frank Olivares. The totals include the Orange County Fair meets (1977-1991).
Owned by Rollingson Racing and trainer Robertino Diodoro, Carlsbad Mountain will be seeking his third consecutive win since being claimed for $20,000 Jan. 29.
A gelded son of Sharp Humor and the Forestry mare Del Mar Cat, the 7-year-old wired a starter allowance group at nearly 19-1 Feb. 14 in his first start for his current connections, then won as the 3-1 favorite in a $32,000 claimer nearly six weeks later. He’s won six of 19 and banked $126,460.
Trained by Peter Eurton for Ciaglia Racing LLC and breeder Crystal Valley Garms, Inc., Howdy comes off a decisive win as the favorite vs. California breds Feb. 26.
The win was the second in 13 races for the 4-year-old Sundarban colt out of the Momentum mare Foxy Babe and pushed his earnings to $129,920.
From inside out, the field: Gold Treasure, Kent Desormeaux rides, 124 pounds; It Is Living Water, Tyler Baze, 124; Carlsbad Mountain, Stewart Elliott, 124; Fusaichi Samurai, Martin Pedroza, 121; Picasso’s Mandolin, David C. Lopez, 124; Howdy, Mario Gutierrez, 124 and Royal F J, Brandon Boulanger, 124.
