Five stakes—two of them graded—worth $625,000 highlight the inaugural spring Thoroughbred meet at Los Alamitos Race Course.
The 12-day meet will begin April 14 and continue through May 1 on a Thursday-through-Sunday schedule.
At 6 1/2 furlongs, the $200,000 Great Lady M. Stakes (gr. II) is the richest event on the schedule. For fillies and mares, the Great Lady M. will be run April 23. A longtime fixture at now-closed Hollywood Park, the race had been run during Los Alamitos' summer Thoroughbred meet in July the previous two years. Los Alamitos ran in the summer during each of its first two years putting on afternoon Thoroughbred races, but will run the spring dates instead in 2016.
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The $100,000 Los Angeles Stakes (gr. III)—run previously at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita Park (2014-2015)—is the other graded race on the schedule. For 3-year-olds and up at 5 1/2 furlongs—a sixteenth of a mile shorter than in the past—the Los Angeles will be offered as part of a stakes doubleheader, along with the $100,000 Bertrando for older California-breds at a mile, April 16.
The first California Chrome Stakes—for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles—will be run April 30. Named in honor of the 2014 Horse of the Year who has called Los Alamitos home since the beginning of his 3-year-old season, the California Chrome offers a purse of $150,000.
Completing the stakes schedule is the first Surfside. Named for the champion 3-year-old filly of 2000), who won eight of her 15 starts and earned more than $1.85 million for owner/breeder Overbrook Farm and Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, the six-furlong Surfside has a purse of $75,000. Restricted to 3-year-old fillies, it will be run April 24.