Los Alamitos concluded its eight-day winter meet Sunday with increases in both all-sources handle and field size, according to a release from the track. The meet, which featured the final Golden State start for champion California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit), as well as a pair of Grade I events for juveniles, concluded with all-sources handle up a projected 16% from 2015. Field size for the meet averaged 7.89, up from 7.13 a year ago.
“I think the key to everything was our field size was up and the racing was very competitive,” said Los Alamitos Racing Association vice president and general manager Brad McKinzie. “[Racing secretary] Bob Moreno deserves all the credit. It's quite an accomplishment to get almost eight starters a race without a turf course.”
McKinzie continued, “This was a serendipitous meet for us as we had everything fall our way. But even before California Chrome ran, we were up 13% after the first week of the meet. We've been up substantially every day over last winter and the only thing I can point my finger to is field size. We put on a better show and California Chrome just kicked us into another stratosphere. Watching how people reacted to California Chrome was heartwarming. The meet couldn't have gone better.”
Bob Baffert, Peter Miller and Mike Puype shared the trainer's title for the meet, with four wins each. Joe Talamo was the meet's leading jockey.
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