Los Alamitos Futurity Scheduled Late in Winter Meet

The $200,000 Los Alamitos Futurity (G2), one of the major races of the winter Thoroughbred meet at Los Alamitos Race Course, will be positioned later in the calendar when it is renewed this year Dec. 19. The stakes race is one of five scheduled at the Southern California track for a season that begins Dec. 4 and continues through Dec. 20. Stakes purses this year are equivalent to 2019 winter-meet levels. The richest race there, the $300,000 Starlet Stakes (G1) for 2-year-old fillies, remains spotted early in the meet, falling Dec. 5. Both the Starlet and Los Alamitos Futurity are over 1 1/16 miles on dirt, the only racing surface at Los Alamitos. Since 2016 they have been run on the same card. The Los Alamitos Futurity and Starlet are points-earning races toward the 2021 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) and the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1), respectively. They offer points on a 10-4-2-1 basis to their top four finishers. The past three years Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert swept both the Los Alamitos Futurity and Starlet. Last year's winners were Baoma Corporation's Bast in the Starlet and Albaugh Family Stables and Spendthrift Farm's Thousand Words in the Los Alamitos Futurity. Nominations closed Aug. 27 for both races, though horses not originally nominated can be made late supplements. Seventeen of the 54 nominees to the Starlet are trained by Baffert, led by Zedan Racing Stables' Princess Noor, the winner of the Del Mar Debutante Stakes (G1). Twenty-six of the 64 nominated to the Los Alamitos Futurity are also his. Four of the five stakes this year at Los Alamitos for its Thoroughbred meet are for juveniles, the other being the $100,000 Soviet Problem for California-bred fillies and the $100,000 King Glorious Stakes for California-bred males. Both races are at a mile. Completing the stakes schedule is the $100,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) Dec. 6 for older fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles. The winter season is the second of two afternoon Thoroughbred meets at Los Alamitos this year. The track also runs a nighttime meet of Quarter Horses and lower-level Thoroughbreds on almost a year-round basis.