Influx of Thoroughbreds Has Been a Win-Win at Los Alamitos

Santa Anita may not be running, but that hasn't kept a number of horsemen from finding ways to win races and earn money for their owners. With Santa Anita shutting down Mar. 29, more and more Thoroughbreds are finding their way to Los Alamitos, where the track has been carding more races suited to Thoroughbreds.

For Los Alamitos, that has meant more races, full fields and record handle numbers.

“The purses aren't what we are used to at Santa Anita, but they're more than if you just breeze them,” said trainer Gary Stute, who is 3-for-5 at Los Alamitos. “It's better than just training and training.”

Though the current meet at Los Alamitos is considered a quarter-horse meet, the track has traditionally written a number of races more geared to thoroughbreds, ones held at 870 yards and 4 1/2 furlongs. Those races have typically been for cheap horses and have been won by Thoroughbreds not good enough to race at Santa Anita, but with Santa Anita unable to run, the Los Alamitos racing department has been writing more 870-yard, 4 1/2-furlong and 1,000-yard races, a clear attempt to get horses to come in from Santa Anita. Last week marked the first time ever that they ran a race as long as 1,000 yards at the quarter horse meet.

“I think it's great the way they have tried to help us,” said Kristin Mulhall, who is 1-for-4 at the meet. “They're trying to give something back and they've also raised the purses.”

It's working. Santa Anita trainers who have won races at the meet also include Vann Belvoir, Andrew Lerner, Jeff Mullins, Jack Carava, Rafael Becerra, Leonard Powell and Mark Glatt.

“Those races have helped keep my owners going and helped them pay some bills,” said Belvoir, who is 7-for-23 at Los Alamitos. “And they have something to look forward to. I've run a horse there for about every owner I have.”

“It's not very glorious racing or glorious purses but it helps make ends meet,” Powell said.

The races are not held on the track used for the regular Thoroughbred meets at Los Alamitos, but on a five-furlong bullring inside the main track. The turns are tight and the races are short, so not every horse is a good fit for Los Alamitos.

“The turns are pretty tight over there,” Said Powell, who is 3-for-4 at the meet. “We have a training track at Santa Anita that is six furlongs. I test them over the training track and if they handle the turns well over there they are good candidates for Los Alamitos.”

Some of the longer races are for $2,500 or $5,000 claimers and they normally don't attract Santa Anita horses. But most cards will include allowance races or maiden special weights. The purses may not be at Santa Anita levels, but they have been raised to represent the better quality they are attracting. The same race that might have been worth $10,000 in March is now going for $18,000. And the racing department is writing more longer races than ever.

You can't take a mile-and-a-half turf horse over to Los Alamitos and expect to win, but Belvoir said a horse doesn't necessarily have to be one-dimensional to succeed there.

“The horse has to have natural gate speed, but a horse who can sit right off the pace can do well,” he said. “It's almost like they run better. It's like a quarter horse race, the jockeys are sending the horses from the gate to the wire. If a couple hook up on the lead, they'll collapse and someone can come from off the pace and run them down.”

It's important, Belvoir added, to not underestimate the quality of the competition.

“You're getting a whole influx of horses coming over there from Santa Anita,” he said. “Now, you have to have a good horse to win. I ran a horse worth $40,000 over there and he ran second.”

The conditions of some races give preference to quarter horses, but few are entered in the longer races, their trainers preferring the 300-yard sprints.

While Los Alamitos is benefitting from a lack of competition for the simulcast dollar, there's little doubt that the new-look racing cards are also responsible for a big bump in the handle. Los Alamitos handled $2,466,567 Friday, a record for the nighttime meet. The record lasted all of one night as the track handled $2,843,573 Saturday. Saturday's early Pick 4, which consisted entirely of races geared towards Thoroughbreds, handled $442,781.

Los Alamitos runs on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and over that three-day period last week they ran 27 races and handled a combined $7,433,161. On the final weekend in March, when Santa Anita was still racing, they ran 23 races and handled $3,972,336.