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Los Alamitos Cancels Friday Card Ahead Of Anticipated Rainstorm

Los Alamitos Racetrack in Cypress, Calif. has cancelled Friday's races in anticipation of heavy rains, reports the Daily Racing Form. The National Weather Service is predicting at least one inch of rain in the area, beginning Thursday evening.

Also cancelling Friday racing was Santa Anita Park in Arcadia.

Last weekend, Los Alamitos opted to go ahead with Saturday night racing despite a rainstorm, drawing criticism from the Los Angeles Times' John Cherwa.

The track has been under increased scrutiny from the California Horse Racing Board after a rash of equine fatalities in 2020, which led to the board initially granting Los Al only a six-month license for 2021. The track's full-year license has since been reinstated.

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Safety Is The Top Priority? Despite Scrutiny, Los Alamitos Conducts Racing On Rain-Sodden Course

On Saturday, the Los Angeles Times' John Cherwa found himself staring at the live feed from Los Alamitos “in horror” because of the sloppy track conditions on which the horses were running.

“The first few races were OK, and then the rains came and came and the track became sloppier and sloppier,” Cherwa wrote in his horse racing newsletter for the LA Times. “The horses on the short Quarter Horse sprints were clearly slipping and sliding and bumping into each other because they couldn't get traction.”

In the evening's seventh race, a 3-year-old named Gowdy fell coming out of the starting gate and dislodged his jockey. A statement from Los Al's marketing and publicity director Orlando Gutierrez explains that Gowdy “locked up from behind” at the start of the race, causing the fall, but that the horse had returned to his stall and “appears to be doing well.”

His jockey, Cruz Mendez, also seems to have escaped major injury since he returned to ride at Los Al on Sunday's card.

“Why were there horses racing on such an unmanageable track if safety is your top priority?” Cherwa questioned. “The stewards or the track superintendent have the right to suspend racing. In this case, it stopped raining by the eighth and final race. Could racing have been put on hold earlier while the bad weather passed?”

On July 10 last year, the California Horse Racing Board held an emergency meeting to discuss a rash of equine fatalities at Los Alamitos, resulting in a 10-day probationary period. Los Al produced a new plan for equine and rider safety which was approved by the board, including an entry review panel.

CHRB vice chairman Oscar Gonzales spoke out against Los Al's safety record (29 equine fatalities were reported during racing or training from Dec. 27, 2019 through 2020) at the CHRB's December meeting, encouraging his fellow commissioners to grant the track only a six-month license. That move prompted Los Al owner Ed Allred to threaten shutting down racing at the Cypress, Calif. track altogether.

The CHRB's January meeting saw the Los Al license reinstated at a full year, despite two additional equine fatalities recorded on Jan. 17. After the vote was handed down, Gonzales promised increased scrutiny of Los Al's horse safety record.

Baffert Has Futurity Winner Spielberg Aimed At Jan. 30 Robert B. Lewis Stakes

Bob Baffert has Spielberg ticketed for Santa Anita's Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes on Jan. 30 following his audacious nose victory in Saturday's Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity, which Baffert won for the seventh straight time.

Baffert has captured the Los Al Futurity every year since it was moved from Hollywood Park to the Cypress track in 2014, and this was the 13th time he has won it overall.

Another victory would match Charlie Whittingham's amazing mark of 14 wins in the same stakes, which The Bald Eagle achieved in the grassy San Juan Capistrano marathon at Santa Anita.

Rallying on the outside in Los Al's long stretch, Spielberg got up in the last bob under Flavien Prat to shade the longest shot in the field of six, 33-1 maiden The Great One, in a photo so close Baffert wasn't sure he won until his number six was posted.

“I was watching it live from a bad angle,” Baffert said, “so I looked at the TV but the horses had already hit the wire. I asked out loud, 'Did I get beat?' and some little guy nearby kept saying, 'The six, the six.'

“I didn't know. I was asking everybody.”

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Allred Threatens To Cease Racing At Los Al After CHRB Approves Only Six-Month License

Los Alamitos owner Dr. Ed Allred threatened to withdraw his racing license application and cease racing at the Cypress, Calif. track on Thursday, reports the Los Angeles Times, when the California Horse Racing Board was preparing to vote whether to approve only a six-month license during its regular meeting.

Allred had applied for a year-long Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing license at Los Alamitos, but the six-month idea was proposed by vice-chairman Oscar Gonzales in light of Los Al's 29 racing or training fatalities since Dec. 27, 2019.

Allred was allowed to speak at the virtual board meeting prior to the vote, and argued that Los Alamitos can't operate with a six-month license because horsemen need to be able to plan for an entire year.

Commissioners were tied 3-3 on the six-month license in the first vote, and tied again on a proposal to grant a one-year license with a six-month review process. Gonzales was eventually able to convince two of the dissenting board members to vote for a six-month license, and the measure passed 5-1 with chairman Gregory Ferraro the lone nay.

“Los Alamitos will be requesting reconsideration of the action taken by the board and hopes that its request will be acted on in an expedited manner,” Jack Liebau, the track's vice president, told the Los Angeles Times.