LOS ALAMITOS LEADERS
(Through Sunday)
Jockeys / Wins
Edwin Maldonado / 3
Armando Ayuso / 3
Diego Herrera / 3
Edgar Payeras / 3
Mario Gutierrez / 2
Tyler Baze / 2
Trainers / Wins
Craig Dollase / 2
Charles Treece / 2
Jeff Mullins / 2
Sergio Morfin / 2
(16 tied) / 1
WEEKEND STAKES
LOS ALAMITOS THOROUGHBREDS
Saturday
• $125,000 Dark Mirage Stakes, fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up, 1 mile
DOWN THE STRETCH
• Two Hall of Fame trainers take different tacks in the Dark Mirage Stakes at Los Alamitos on Saturday. Richard Mandella drops Coffee in Bed (Kyle Frey riding) in class after the 4-year-old filly chased Adare Manor in graded stakes at Santa Anita and Del Mar. Bob Baffert steps Show Card (Juan Hernandez) up a bit after the 3-year-old filly won the restricted Tranquility Lake Stakes by 10 lengths at Del Mar. The six-horse mile is the eighth on a nine-race card starting at 1 p.m. Los Al’s two-week thoroughbred meet ends Sunday.
• In Los Alamitos night quarter-horse racing, Up to Party and Pattys Saint achieved firsts last weekend. Up to Party and jockey Armando Cervantes beat Ultimate Battle by a neck in the Grade II PCQHRA Breeders Futurity on Sunday, making the 2-year-old the only filly among four horses who have won both that race and the Ed Burke Million Futurity. Pattys Saint and Eduardo Nicasio won the Grade I Mildred Vessels Memorial Handicap on Saturday, the 6-year-old mare becoming the first horse to sweep Los Al’s three richest races for fillies and mares in the same season.
• Twenty-three nominees for the $1 million, Grade I California Crown at Santa Anita on Sept. 28 include five Baffert-trained horses: Muth, National Treeasure, Newgate, Reincarnate and Ultra Power, and other 2024 stakes winners Senor Buscador, Mixto, Dr. Venkman, E.J. Won the Cup and Skippylongstocking. The 1⅛-mile race for 3-year-olds and up, enriched and renamed after years as the Goodwood and Awesome Again, is the major West Coast prep for the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar. It headlines the inaugural California Crown Day featuring five stakes races.
• Santa Anita Derby winner Stronghold, also a California Crown nominee, is the 5-2 second choice behind West Virginia Derby winner Dragoon Guard (9-5) and ahead of Preakness winner Seize the Grey (5-1) on the morning line for the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing on Saturday. Antonio Fresu rides Stronghold from post 12 in the 1⅛-mile race.
• Maria Borell, the one-time trainer of 2015 champion sprinter Runhappy who hasn’t started a horse since facing animal-cruelty charges in Kentucky in 2016, has been issued a license by the California Horse Racing Board. Aidan Butler, CEO of The Stronach Group, which runs Santa Anita, said on Thursday that Borell doesn’t have stalls at the Arcadia track but said he couldn’t comment “at the moment” on whether Borell will be permitted to race horses during the Sept. 27-Oct. 27 meet. Borell and her father Charles were charged after Kentucky veterinarians declared horses on their property malnourished. Maria Borell’s charges were expunged under an agreement with prosecutors. California officials said they have no legal reason not to license her.
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• The win by Red Cross Knight (Edwin Maldonado riding) in an allowance-level race at Los Alamitos last Friday was the first victory of 2024 for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. It came in the 22nd start at Los Al and Del Mar this year for the Racing Hall of Famer. Hollendorfer has been barred from Santa Anita since 2019, after four of his horses sustained fatal injuries during the 2018-19 period when at least 42 horses died at the track.
• Three-year-old Economics and jockey Tom Marquard beat Auguste Rodin and Ryan Moore by a neck in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown on Saturday to earn a spot in the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar. Economics, a British-bred colt, has won four in a row. Auguste Rodin has lost four of five since his 2023 Breeders’ Cup Turf win at Santa Anita.
— Kevin Modesti