Three stakes during 8-day meet in July

The Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby on July 15 will be worth $200,000 and is the richest of three stakes at the eight-day Los Alamitos summer meeting July 6-16, the track announced Thursday.

The track is running a July meeting for the first time since 2015. Last year, Los Alamitos hosted Thoroughbred meetings in April, September, and December. This year, there are also meetings scheduled for September and December.

The Los Alamitos Derby was run in September last year for $200,000. The race was worth $350,000 when run in July 2015.

The July meeting this year includes the Grade 3, $150,000 Great Lady M. Stakes for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs and the $100,000 Bertrando Stakes for California-bred milers on July 8. Finest City won the 2016 Great Lady M. Stakes when the race was run in April and was worth $200,000. Finest City later won the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint and was named the champion female sprinter of 2016.

The Great Lady M. is recognized as a Grade 2 race but must maintain a $200,000 purse to retain that status, according to the American Graded Stakes Committee. The race will be recognized as a Grade 3 race this year because of the lower purse.

In 2015, there were four stakes worth $725,000 in total at the summer meeting, compared with three races worth $450,000 this year. This year’s schedule does not include a $75,000 stakes for 2-year-olds.

Track officials said some purses have been reduced to allow the December meeting to offer two Grade 1 races for 2-year-olds at $300,000 each – the Starlet for fillies and the Futurity.

Masochistic to Churchill Downs

Masochistic, the three-time stakes winner who was second in the Grade 1 Triple Bend Stakes in his first start of the year March 11, is bound for Kentucky.

Trainer Ron Ellis said on Friday that Masochistic will start in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes on May 6 on the undercard of the Kentucky Derby. Masochistic was the 1-2 favorite in the $400,690 Triple Bend Stakes at seven furlongs at Santa Anita. He led to the final furlong before losing by a length to 16-1 Denman’s Call.

“He got a little tired and hadn’t run in four months,” Ellis said. “He ran his B-plus or A-minus race, not his A-plus race.”

The Triple Bend was Masochistic’s first start since a second in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita last November. Masochistic was later disqualified from the purse money because of a positive test for a banned steroid.

Masochistic has won 8 of 15 starts and earned $852,550. A 7-year-old gelding, Masochistic races for Samantha Siegel and Will Shamlian. The $500,000 Churchill Downs Stakes is run at seven furlongs and typically draws a strong field from throughout the nation. Masochistic has run once at Churchill Downs, winning a maiden race on Kentucky Derby Day in 2014.

Goodyearforroses eyes Gamely

Goodyearforroses, unbeaten in three starts since joining trainer Richard Baltas’s stable last fall, is likely to start in the first Grade 1 race of her career in the $300,000 Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita on May 27.

Baltas said on Friday that Goodyearforroses emerged from her win in the Grade 2 Santa Ana Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf March 12 in “great” condition. She won the $201,035 race by 1 3/4 lengths as the even-money favorite. Earlier at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting, Goodyearforroses won the Robert Frankel Stakes on Dec. 31 and the Astra Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on turf Feb. 2.

“She won pretty easily the other day,” Baltas said. “We want to run in a Grade 1 if we can. The Gamely is a goal.”

Baltas said the timing between the Santa Ana and the Gamely is ideal. He said the Grade 3 Santa Barbara Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on turf April 30 is unlikely.

Owned by the Abbondanza Racing Stables partnership, Goodyearforroses has won 7 of 15 starts and earned $365,995. She was purchased for $200,000 at the Fasig-Tipton November sale last year. In her three wins for her current owner and trainer, Goodyearforroses has earned $226,800.

◗ Stellar Wind, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2015, worked six furlongs in 1:13 on Friday at Santa Anita ahead of the Grade 1 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park on April 14. The Apple Blossom will be the first start for Stellar Wind since a fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita last November. The BC Distaff at Del Mar on Nov. 3 is a long-term goal.

Owned by Pete and Kosta Hronis, Stellar Wind has won 7 of 12 starts and earned $1,453,200.