LosAl purses similar to 2019; entries solid

The Los Alamitos summer meeting that begins Friday, and is scheduled for seven days, will have overnight purses similar to the corresponding meeting in 2019, a contrast from Del Mar and Santa Anita, which are offering reduced purses this spring and summer because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Track vice president Jack Liebau said Wednesday that a cash infusion from track owner Ed Allred is the difference.

Los Alamitos will operate without ontrack spectators, and the vital ontrack handle that customers provide for purse revenue. Tracks derive a smaller percentage of revenue for purses from handle generated at simulcast or account wagering sources.

Santa Anita raced without spectators from mid-March to Sunday’s closing day of the winter-spring meeting. The track reduced purses when it resumed racing May 15 after a break of more than seven weeks caused by the pandemic. Del Mar has reduced overnight purses by approximately 20 percent for its upcoming summer meeting.

In early May, Los Alamitos announced that the Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby on July 4 will be worth $150,000 instead of the $100,000 originally advertised. At the time, Liebau said Allred provided the additional funding. The first four finishers of the Los Alamitos Derby will earn qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5 at Churchill Downs.

Liebau said it is highly unlikely Los Alamitos will conclude the upcoming meeting on July 6 without showing a decline in revenue generated for purses.

“This summer, we have only two weeks,” he said. “Last summer, we had three weeks and we’re running the same stakes. It’s a bad business model.”

Los Alamitos had hoped to have spectators present at the Thoroughbred meeting, as well as the ongoing evening meeting of Quarter Horses and lower-level Thoroughbreds, but has not received government approval.

Aside from the Los Alamitos Derby, stakes at the upcoming meeting are Saturday’s $100,000 Soi Phet Stakes for California-bred milers and the Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes, a $200,000 race for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs on July 4.

Most categories for overnight purses will have the same value as the 2019 summer meeting. A maiden special weight race will be worth $40,000, an open allowance race is worth $55,000, and a $20,000 claimer for 3-year-olds is worth $21,000, the same as last year.

The purse of a $16,000 to $14,000 claimer for nonwinners of two will be $17,000, a decline of $1,000 from last year.

Field sizes will be vital to the success of the meeting, and a way to attract the attention of bettors who have numerous choices of tracks to follow.

Friday’s opening-day program has eight races with a maximum of 65 runners before scratches, or 8.1 entrants per race.

“I was pleased with the entries for Friday,” Liebau said.

The 2019 summer meeting averaged 6.49 runners per race, compared to 6.9 in 2018. Unlike Del Mar or Santa Anita, Los Alamitos does not have a turf course.

Maintaining comparable purse levels is vital to attract runners at a time when owners and trainers are becoming increasingly focused on the start of the more lucrative Del Mar summer meeting on July 10. Trainers can ship to Del Mar as quickly as Friday, when the stable area opens, although many are planning to send horses next week or in the early days of July.

When horses are sent to Del Mar prior to the summer meeting, they are seldom shipped back to Los Alamitos for a race.

“I’ve had one horse that went to Del Mar and came back and ran here since we started doing this in 2014,” racing secretary Bob Moreno said Wednesday.

“I think in general it will be hard to fill with Del Mar opening.”

Liebau and Moreno said the Thursday, July 2, program is tentative, depending on support from owners and trainers. The day was added to the summer schedule earlier this month.

“I figure we’re better off having that opportunity than not,” Liebau said.

Blitzkrieg to Del Mar Mile

Blitzkrieg, who won his second Grade 3 race in Sunday’s American Stakes at Santa Anita, could have his next start in the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile on turf Aug. 23.

Blitzkrieg led throughout the $102,000 American Stakes at a mile on turf, winning by a length at 7-1 in his seventh start of the year. A 5-year-old gelding, Blitzkrieg was winless in four starts in Dubai from late January to early March.

Trainer Doug O’Neill said Wednesday that Blitzkrieg could benefit from a gap between starts in coming weeks.

“That may be the plan instead of putting him on a plane,” O’Neill said of the $150,000 Del Mar Mile. “He’s had a pretty strong campaign, but he thrives on training and racing.

“We need more like him around the barn.”

Blitzkrieg won the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile at Golden Gate Fields in 2019.