LOS ALAMITOS WINTER MEET BEGINS FRIDAY, DEC. 4

By Robert Mieszerski —-

STARLET, LOS ALAMITOS FUTURITY HIGHLIGHT SEASON

CYPRESS, Calif. – Five stakes races – three of which are graded – highlight the 2020 Los Angeles County Fair Winter thoroughbred meet at Los Alamitos.

The season will begin Friday, Dec. 4 and continue through Sunday, Dec. 20.

Racing is scheduled to be conducted Friday-Sunday the first week (Dec. 4-6) and Thursday-Sunday the final two weeks (Dec. 10-13 and Dec. 17-20). Post time will be 1 p.m. on weekdays and 12:30 p.m. on weekends.

The Grade I, $300,000-guaranteed Starlet for fillies and the Grade II, $200,000-guaranteed Los Alamitos Futurity will be run, respectively, Saturday, Dec. 5 and Saturday, Dec. 19. Both races are at 1 1/16 miles and being offered at Los Alamitos for the seventh time. The two significant races were run previously at Hollywood Park (1981-2013).

Hall of Famer Bob Baffert won both the Starlet and Futurity for a third consecutive year in 2019, taking the former with Bast and the latter with Thousand Words.

Baffert has won all six running’s of the Futurity at Los Alamitos, taking the 2014 renewal with Dortmund, then scoring with Mor Spirit (2015), Mastery (2016), McKinzie (2017) and Improbable (2018) prior to Thousand Words’ success.

The other graded stakes is the Grade III, $100,000 Bayakoa Stakes, which will be offered Sunday, Dec. 6. The race at 1 1/16 miles for fillies and mares (3-year-olds & up) returned to the schedule in 2019 after a one-year absence.

The remaining two stakes are at one mile and for 2-year-olds bred or sired in California. The $100,000-guaranteed Soviet Problem for fillies will be run Saturday, Dec. 12 while the $100,000 King Glorious for colts & geldings will be contested Sunday, Dec. 20.

Live racing will continue to be run with no spectators and only essential personnel allowed inside the facility to conduct the program.

The wagering menu includes the $2 Pick Six, a pair of $1 Pick 4’s – races 2-5 and the final four – as well as the popular Players’ Pick 5 – a 50-cent minimum wager with a low takeout rate of 14% – on the first five races.

The Pick Six will have the standard 70-30 split with 70% of the pool going to those tickets with six winners and the remaining 30% going to tickets with five of six winners.

Entries for the opening day program will be taken Tuesday, Dec. 1.