Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Los Alamitos to host training during closure
Los Alamitos is expected to have more Thoroughbreds train there for at least the next week while Santa Anita’s racetrack is closed for inspection following a rash of equine fatalities in recent months. Santa Anita announced Tuesday that there will be no racing or training until further notice while track consultant Dennis Moore conducts a study on the surface.
Los Alamitos is currently running its night-time meeting for Quarter Horses and lowerlevel Thoroughbreds on weekends.
Los Alamitos vice president Jack Liebau said Wednesday that the track can accommodate 350 Thoroughbreds based at Santa Anita that need a place to train and that the number could increase with the use of temporary stalls used for horse sales.
The San Luis Rey Downs training center in San Diego County also may see an influx of horses during the closure of Santa Anita.
Some trainers based at Santa Anita also have stables at Los Alamitos and San Luis Rey Downs and are expected to send horses there to stay and train. Other trainers are sending horses to train at Los Alamitos and then shipping them back to Santa Anita, Liebau said.
Los Alamitos conducts a Quarter Horse yearling sale each October and houses those prospects in temporary stalls, which could be used if the stable area reached capacity, Liebau said.
“If there was a long-range problem, we could make use of the stalls for the sale,” Liebau said. “If it was a long-term issue, we would be available. We would do anything that would help. This is an industry problem, not a Santa Anita problem.”
Los Alamitos is not planning to run Thoroughbreds during the day while Santa Anita is closed for racing, Liebau said. Los Alamitos runs three daytime Thoroughbred meetings each year. The first of those this year, a three-week meeting, is scheduled to begin June 27, four days after the end of the Santa Anita springsummer meeting.
Chuck Winner, chairman of the California Horse Racing Board, said Tuesday that Los Alamitos would have to submit a license application by Friday to conduct racing during Santa Anita’s dates.
Del Mar is not in a position to accommodate horses for training, according to chief executive officer Joe Harper.
“The track is buttoned up,” he said. “Usually, it takes more than a week to get it ready.”
In the winter of 2017-18, Del Mar was open for training for several months following the devastating fire that struck the San Luis Rey Downs in December 2017. Del Mar had ended its autumn meeting 10 days earlier. This winter, the track has not been used for training.
Five graded stakes were scheduled for Saturday at Santa Anita, including the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap, Grade 1 Frank Kilroe, and Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes, which is a key prep for the Santa Anita Derby on April 6.
As of late Wednesday morning, Santa Anita officials had not decided when those races would be run.
“We need to get everyone on base before we announce anything,” racing secretary Steve Lym said.
There have been 21 equine fatalities since the start of the winter-spring meeting on Dec. 26, including a filly injured during training Tuesday.
Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer of The Stronach Group, Santa Anita’s parent company, said Tuesday that there would be no racing through at least Sunday at Santa Anita.
Racing was scheduled from Friday through Sunday and again for a four-day period beginning Thursday, March 14.
“We’re going to discontinue training and racing until further notice,” Ritvo said in a phone interview. “We’ll give Dennis a chance to fully examine everything.”
Moore also is a track superintendent at Del Mar and Los Alamitos and left a position as a track consultant at Santa Anita in December.
Early Tuesday afternoon, Santa Anita announced Moore had returned as a consultant. By mid-afternoon, Ritvo had announced an immediate cessation of racing and training.
“We’re hoping it works out,” Harper said. “We’re glad that Dennis Moore got there. He called yesterday and we said, ‘By all means, go to Santa Anita and do what you can.’ ”
The racing board is scheduled to address the equine fatalities at a March 21 meeting at Golden Gate Fields.