LOS ALAMITOS THOROUGHBRED MEET LEADERS
(Final, through Sunday)
Jockeys / Wins
Antonio Fresu / 6
Tiago Pereira / 6
Armando Ayuso / 5
Kyle Frey / 5
Tyler Baze / 4
Trainers / Wins
Steve Knapp / 7
John Sadler / 3
(Eleven tied) / 2
WEEKEND STAKES
LOS ALAMITOS QUARTER HORSES
Saturday
• $30,000 First Down Dash Handicap, quarter horses, 3-year-olds and up, 400 yards
• $25,000 A Ransom Handicap, quarter horses, 3-year-olds, 350 yards
Sunday
• $175,000 Southern California Derby, quarter horses, 3-year-olds, 400 yards
DOWN THE STRETCH
• Santa Anita has lowered its bottom-level claiming prices to $5,000 for winners and $8,000 for maidens for the season starting Thursday, Dec. 26, in a condition book revised to create more races suitable for Northern California thoroughbreds displaced by the elimination of meets above the county-fair level up there. The loss of meets at Pleasanton at least for 2025 became official Thursday when the California Horse Racing Board voted unanimously to approve operators’ decision to withdraw a dates request after the financial flop of the fall season meant to replace shuttered Golden Gate Fields. Pleasanton will continue to serve as a training facility. Racing Board chairman Greg Ferraro addressed Bay Area horse people shaken by the increased consolidation of California racing in the south: “I know this is going to be a difficult period of time for this transition. Hopefully it’s a temporary thing, and times get better and we can go back to where we were.”
• In part because of the NoCal problems, total betting handle on California races was down 7% in November and down 6% year-to-date from the same periods in 2023, Racing Board executive director Scott Chaney said at Thursday’s meeting in Sacramento.
• Steve Knapp earned his first training title in a 25-year career by topping the standings with seven victories at the short Los Alamitos thoroughbred meet that ended Sunday. Antonio Fresu and Tiago Pereira tied for the riding title with six wins each after Pereira’s triple on closing day. The meet was highlighted by victories by Journalism ($7.60) and jockey Umberto Rispoli in the Los Alamitos Futurity, putting the Michael McCarthy-trained son of Curlin in the 2025 3-year-olds picture, and Tenma ($7) and Juan Hernandez in the Starlet Stakes, giving trainer Bob Baffert his eighth consecutive win in that race for 2-year-old fillies.
• Empressum ($8.80), with Rodrigo Vallejo riding, won his second Champion of Champions for quarter horses at Los Al on Saturday night two years after his first, while favorite Jeriko ran a bumpy fourth. With his 25th win in 36 starts, the 6-year-old trained by Heath Taylor became the sixth horse to win the Orange County track’s most prestigious race more than once, joining Dash For Cash (1976-77), Refrigerator (1992-93-94), SLM Big Dady (1997-98), Apollitical Pence (2021-22) and Tailor Fit (1999, 2001). Sunday night, Lethal Cowboy 123 ($10.80) and Edwin Escobedo won a three-way photo in the $1.8 million Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity, the track’s richest event.
• Gary Brinson, the starter at Southern California tracks for 40 years, was back on the job at the Los Al night races Sunday hours after being briefly hospitalized and receiving stitches under an eyebrow following an incident during the track’s afternoon card that serves as a reminder of the dangers of people working in and around starting gates. Brinson, 76, was knocked down by Stormy Samurai after the 5-year-old broke through the gate before Sunday’s second race and veered toward the starter’s standing position near the inside rail. Stormy Samurai was treated for cuts too, but trainer Sergio Morfin said he was otherwise OK.
• Uncle Mo was euthanized at age 16 on Thursday at Ashford Stud in Kentucky after unsuccessful surgery for a left foreleg injury. The 2010 2-year-old champion for owner Mike Repole and trainer Todd Pletcher set a record for progeny earnings by a first-year sire in 2015 and remained a top-10 stallion whose offspring included 2013 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist and recent top Southern California mare Adare Manor.
— Kevin Modesti