Los Alamitos Futurity | Horse Racing Free Tips

Post Times Adjusted For Final Four Days Of Los Alamitos Winter Meet

Beginning Thursday, Dec. 9, there will be post time adjustments for the final four days of the Los Alamitos Winter Thoroughbred meet.

The new post time for Thursday, Dec. 9 and Friday, Dec. 10 is 12:30 p.m. a half-hour earlier than the first week of the season. Post time for Saturday, Dec. 11 and Sunday, Dec. 12 will be 12 Noon, 30 minutes earlier than the previous weekend.

There will be three stakes races the final three days of the Winter season, topped by the Grade 2, $300,000 Los Alamitos Futurity for 2-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles Saturday, Dec. 11.

The Friday, Dec. 10 program will be highlighted by the $100,000 Soviet Problem Stakes for 2-year-old fillies bred or sired in California and a winner's circle ceremony honoring trainer Art Sherman, who is retiring after an illustrious career of more than 65 years in racing as an exercise rider, jockey and trainer.

The main event closing day (Sunday, Dec. 12) is the $100,000 King Glorious Stakes for 2-year-olds bred or sired in California. Both the Soviet Problem and King Glorious will be run at one mile.

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Starlet, Los Alamitos Futurity Headline Winter Stakes Schedule At Los Al

Four stakes for 2-year-olds – including a pair of graded races – highlight the upcoming Winter Thoroughbred meet at Los Alamitos.

The season is scheduled to begin Friday, Dec. 3 and continue through Sunday, Dec. 12.

The $300,000-guaranteed Starlet, a Grade 1 for 2-year-old fillies, will be renewed for the eighth time at Los Alamitos Saturday, Dec. 4, one week before the $200,000 Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity. Won a year ago by the Bob Baffert-trained Varda, the Starlet – like the Futurity – will be contested at 1 1/16 miles.

Among the nominees to the Starlet are impressive Del Mar Debutante winner Grace Adler, Dance to the Music, Elm Drive and Eda.

Nominees for the Futurity, which was won a year ago by Spielberg, giving Baffert his seventh consecutive win in the race, include Del Mar Futurity winner Pinehurst, Enbarr, winner of the local Capote Stakes, Pappacap and Rhetoric.

The other two stakes for juveniles will be run at one mile and are ungraded. The $100,000 Soviet Problem – for fillies – will be offered Saturday, Dec. 11 while the $100,000 King Glorious will be run Sunday, Dec. 12. Both are for 2-year-olds bred or sired in California.

Completing the stakes schedule is the Grade 3, $100,000 Bayakoa Stakes for fillies & mares (3-year-olds & up) at 1 1/16 miles. The Bayakoa will be run Sunday, Dec. 5.

The complete LACF Winter Thoroughbred Stakes schedule:

Saturday, Dec. 4 – The Starlet (Grade 1) – 2-Year-Old Fillies – One & One Sixteenth Miles – $300,000-guaranteed

Sunday, Dec. 5 – Bayakoa Stakes (Grade 3) – 3-Year-Olds & Up, Fillies & Mares – One & One Sixteenth Miles – $100,000-guaranteed

Saturday, Dec. 11 – Soviet Problem Stakes – 2-Year-Old Fillies, Bred or Sired in California – One Mile – $100,000-guaranteed

Saturday, Dec. 11 – Los Alamitos Futurity (Grade 2) – 2-Year-Olds – One & One Sixteenth Miles – $200,000-guaranteed

Sunday, Dec. 12 – King Glorious Stakes – 2-Year-Olds, Bred or Sired in California – One Mile – $100,000-guaranteed

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Baffert Looking For Spielberg To Supply Him A Ninth Victory In Robert B. Lewis Stakes

Should Bob Baffert win Saturday's Robert B. Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif., he could “retire the cup,” as the expression goes.

It would mark the third straight victory in the steppingstone to the Grade 1 Runhappy Santa Anita Derby on April 3 for the two-time Triple Crown-winning trainer.

Baffert won the Lewis last year with Thousand Words and in 2019 with Mucho Gusto. Overall, he has won it a record eight times, dating back to 1999 with General Challenge.

Subsequent winners were Domestic Dispute (2003), Pioneerof the Nile (2009), Flashback (2013), Dortmund (2015), Mor Spirit (2016) and the aforementioned Mucho Gusto and Thousand Words.

First run in 1935 as the Santa Catalina Handicap, this will mark the 83^rd edition of the race, no matter its name or distance.

Baffert has two Triple Crown prospects nominated to the Lewis, but is likely to run only Spielberg, opting to wait and see how issues such as weather play out with Medina Spirit.

“Spielberg is definite, but Medina Spirit could run; I'm not certain,” Baffert said. “We're going to have a lot of rain next week so I'm not sure.” Both horses worked five furlongs Friday in the identical time of 1:01.20.

Spielberg won the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity at a mile and one-sixteenth by a desperate nose over Doug O'Neill's 33-1 longshot The Great One last Dec. 19 and has displayed an advantageous stalking style. The Great One came back to win on Saturday, Jan. 23, by 14 lengths.

“He's been immature but he's improving mentally,” Baffert said of the $1-million son of Union Rags owned by a partnership of SF Racing LLC, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables LLC, et al.

The Robert B. Lewis is named in honor of the late owner whose Silver Charm (co-owned with wife, Beverly) provided Bob Baffert with his first Kentucky Derby win in 1998. The Lewis's would also go on to win the 1999 Derby with the D. Wayne Lukas-trained Charismatic.

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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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