LOS ALAMITOS LEADERS
(Through Sunday)
Jockeys / Wins
Edgar Payeras / 4
Antonio Fresu / 3
Kazushi Kimura / 3
Ricardo Ramirez / 2
Ricardo Gonzalez / 2
(10 tied) / 1
Trainers / Wins
Doug O’Neill / 3
Richard Baltas / 2
Jesus Uranga / 2
(19 tied) / 1
UPCOMING STAKES
LOS ALAMITOS
Saturday
• $100,000 Dark Mirage Stakes, fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up, 1 mile
DOWN THE STRETCH
• Bob Baffert-trained Nothing Like You looks best among the fillies and mares trying to rediscover the winner’s circle in Saturday’s Dark Mirage Stakes, highlight of closing weekend at the short Los Alamitos thoroughbred meet. Nothing Like You (Juan Hernandez riding) is 0 for 5 at the stakes level since winning the 2023 Starlet at Los Al and the 2024 Santa Anita Oaks. But the 4-year-old filly’s five opponents are a collective 0 for 18 in stakes in the same span.
• Baeza (Hector Berrios) and Goal Oriented (Irad Ortiz Jr.), who have been chasing top 3-year-olds Sovereignty and Journalism, are 2-1 and 5-2 on the morning line as the two Santa Anita-based colts head the $1 million, Grade I Pennsylvania Derby on Saturday. The 10-horse field for the 1⅛-mile race includes Gosger (Luis Saez), Magnitude (Ben Curtis) and Big Truzz (Javier Castellano).
• Baeza is No. 9 this week in the Longines-sponsored rankings of contenders for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, main event of the Oct. 31-Nov. 1 Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar. Sovereignty remains No. 1 in the rankings determined by racing reporters, handicappers and officials, followed by Fierceness, Sierra Leone, Mindframe, Journalism, Forever Young, Antiquarian and Nysos.
• Nysos hasn’t recorded a workout since being scratched from the Aug. 30 Pacific Classic at Del Mar, and wasn’t nominated for the Sept. 27 Goodwood Stakes, Santa Anita’s prep for the Breeders’ Cup Classic. The Santa Anita fall meet opens Sept. 26.
• Spice Runner ($12.38) and Jose Ortiz won for trainer Steve Asmussen, catching favorite Comport and Tyler Gaffalione, in Saturday’s Iroquois Stakes at Churchill Downs. It was the first race awarding qualifying points for the May 2 Kentucky Derby.
• In Los Al night quarter-horse racing, Hott Temptation ($11.20) and jockey Martin Arriaga held off Aj Born Runnin and Jose Nicasio to win the Grade I Mildred Vessels Memorial Handicap on Saturday, earning the 3-year-old filly a spot in the Dec. 13 Champion of Champions.
• Kazushi Kimura, three wins from 1,000 in his eight years riding in the United States and Canada, has mounts in six of the eight races at Los Alamitos on Friday afternoon. He’s looking to join at least a dozen current Southern California jockeys who have passed that career milestone, a list led by Kent Desormeaux (6,190) and Mike Smith (5,786).
• Efrain Hernandez was not named on horses Friday and Saturday as the jockey recovers from a fall with Malibu Rocks in Sunday afternoon’s second race at Los Alamitos. Four-year-old Malibu Rocks clipped the heels of Majestic Palisades on the far turn of the 1-mile claiming race. Hernandez was taken to Long Beach Memorial Hospital as a precaution after complaining of body soreness.
• The death of the 2-year-old quarter-horse colt Bandera de Mexico, the result of an injury in last Sunday night’s seventh race at Los Al, was the 22nd horse fatality from musculoskeletal and other causes in racing and training at Santa Anita, Del Mar and Los Al since the start of the California racing season Dec. 26. That’s one more than occurred in the same period last year and one less than the average for the past three years, going by data on the California Horse Racing Board website. Deaths have increased this year at Los Al and declined at Santa Anita and Del Mar compared to averages in recent years.
• Del Mar announced the Cary Grant Stakes is being renamed The Chosen Vron Stakes to honor the two-time California-bred Horse of the Year who was retired at age 7 in March. The Chosen Vron’s 19 victories in 25 career starts included two wins in the Cary Grant, a November race for Cal-bred sprinters.
— Kevin Modesti