Credit some big-time stakes races for helping Los Alamitos Race Course attract top names in Southern California’s horse-racing industry for its first thoroughbred season—a midsummer run that’s set to kick off this week.
The North OC track also got an assist from California Chrome, who trained there throughout his run for the Triple Crown. The wave of publicity brought national notice for the renovated race track before the colt fell short at the Belmont Stakes a few weeks ago.
Los Alamitos won’t offer as much as the $1.5 million purse that was up for grabs at Belmont, but it plans to make a mark on the Southern California circuit with its debut thoroughbred meet. It will be a relatively brief opportunity, with its July 3 opener coming hard on the heels of a six-month meet at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, and a closing card 10 days later, just before the region’s racing action shifts to the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in San Diego County for about six weeks.
The $500,000 Los Alamitos Derby on July 5 will highlight a new era at the 63-year-old track, which has long been known as the home for quarter horse sprinters.
Only the TVG Pacific Classic at Del Mar and the Santa Anita Handicap and Santa Anita Derby offer more prize money for stakes races in Southern California.
The $200,000 Great Lady M Stakes—another chunk from a total kitty of $1.1 million the track set aside for big races—is set for July 6 at Los Alamitos.
The goal is to capitalize on the void created with last year’s closure of Betfair Hollywood Park in Inglewood and to earn a place for Los Alamitos as a leading track for thoroughbreds in Southern California.
“We purposely went heavy on the big stakes to brand ourselves as a quality thoroughbred meet,” said Brad McKinzie, a consultant to Los Alamitos Race Course and longtime owner Dr. Ed “Doc” Allred. “We wanted to make sure this was a different product that we were going to be selling.”
$6M Renovation
The race track, which opened its gates in 1951, just completed a $6 million renovation to prep the grounds for an influx of horses that had to find new training grounds after Hollywood Park closed. Construction included lengthening the oval track from five-eighths of a mile to a mile, adding some 200 horse stalls, renovating grandstand restrooms, creating a new area in the upper mezzanine, resurfacing the parking lot, upgrading barns, and enlarging saddling paddocks and jockey rooms.
“It’s pretty much a total face-lift of the joint,” said McKinzie, a lifer who’s had nearly every job at Los Alamitos since his start as a groomer in 1971 while attending Western High School in Anaheim.
The project is the first major renovation at Los Alamitos since the $7 million addition of the Vessels turf club in 1993.
Jockey Gary Stevens, a mainstay of the sport for decades, consulted on the design of the 1-mile dirt track, a mix of indigenous sand from El Segundo, soot, clay and other compounds that has helped win over plenty of industry skeptics.
Among the first to give Los Alamitos a try with a thoroughbred were the owners of California Chrome, which first garnered attention with a win in the Santa Anita Derby.
The buzz brought a local benefit: California Chrome’s workouts before a decisive win at the Kentucky Derby were drawing 600 spectators a day to Los Alamitos.
Publicity Wave
A weekslong wave of publicity followed—Los Alamitos drew mentions as the home of the California-bred colt in TV and Web coverage, as well as in sports sections of newspapers from South Beach to Seattle.
“He’s helped of all us; he’s been a godsend,” McKinzie said. “A million bucks wouldn’t have bought what he’s done.”
The race track moved quickly to capitalize on that excitement, selling California Chrome-branded apparel, clothing and posters at retail booths throughout the park on the day of the Belmont, which drew a sell-out crowd for a $50 buffet and satellite wagering at its Vessels Club.
California Chrome couldn’t repeat the magic, finishing in a dead heat for fourth place and extending the longest drought between Triple Crown winners.
Affirmed was the last horse to do it in 1978.
The boost California Chrome brought to Los Alamitos started with trainer Art Sherman, who has served in the same capacity for Allred’s stable of quarter horses for years. Sherman thought it was an ideal training ground for the colt once the track was extended to accommodate the longer runs for thoroughbreds.
“Since Hollywood Park closed, it’s the ideal spot to be in,” said the 77-year-old Sherman, now the oldest trainer to win the Kentucky Derby.
Big names from the thoroughbred industry soon decided to put some year-round training operations at the OC track.
Hall of famer Bob Baffert was among the first—he’s committed to bringing 60 of his thoroughbreds to train and run there.
He was followed by other top trainers, including Mike Harrington, Mike Puype, Kathy Walsh and Marty Jones.
Economic Boost
The July meeting at Los Alamitos will feature eight days of racing, and plans call for a three-week run in December. The two meets are expected to provide an economic boost for the track and surrounding businesses. It will add about 100 more employees on race days, ranging from front-office managers, tellers and administrative jobs to the grooms, exercise jockeys, and hot walkers who work the backside of the track.
The ripple effect should also benefit support jobs, such as local farmers, hay and grain vendors, veterinarians and horseshoers, among others.
About 1,200 people work at Los Alamitos, most of them for trainers, vendors and other third parties. It would be among the top 70 largest employers in the county if all of the workers were employed by the track.
The track will be one of the few venues in the sport to host day-night double headers, with the first on July 5.
It’s expected to boost its handle—the total wagers on all races at the track—fivefold on thoroughbred race days. The track averages about $1.2 million per race card for quarter horses, which run at night.
Sales of hay, straw and grain in the barn area are expected to triple to more than $15 million annually, bringing a nice bump in sales tax for the city of Cypress.
The city also receives a third of 1% of the handle generated at Los Alamitos. The track’s annual handle was about $256 million in the 12 months through June 2013, the most recent data available, which came to nearly $850,000 for Cypress.
“This race track is a big economic engine,” McKinzie said. “When you can bring your product into a new local market, particularly a lucrative market like Orange County, (it’s) a plus.”
The venue can easily accommodate the 8,000 to 10,000 fans expected on race days, which might make it just the right size for an industry with a fan base in gradual decline.
The days of attracting 40,000 fans for weekend race cards are long over, a factor that played into the shutdown of Hollywood Park, where a residential and commercial development is now planned.
Labor of Love
The track is a labor of love for 78-year-old Allred, who bought the track for $32 million in 1989 with former partner Christo Bardis.
It’s a love of quarter horses—and the excitement of gambling that he openly craves—that prompts Allred to make the trip from his Newport Beach home to Los Alamitos nearly every day.
“Tracks are not particularly profitable,” said Allred, who had just lost another bet at Santa Anita before picking up the phone. “We like the horses, and we like the people. It’s in some of our blood.”
