LOS ALAMITOS LEADERS
(Through Sunday)
Jockeys / Wins
Kazushi Kimura / 6
Tiago Pereira / 5
Kyle Frey / 5
Diego Herrera / 4
(Five tied) / 3
Trainers / Wins
Steve Knapp / 5
Tim Yakteen / 3
Doug O’Neill / 3
Sean McCarthy / 2
Martin Valenzuela / 2
Peter Miller / 2
UPCOMING STAKES
LOS ALAMITOS DAY RACING
Saturday
• $200,000, Grade II Great Lady M. Stakes, fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up, 6½ furlongs
LOS ALAMITOS NIGHT RACING
Sunday
• $150,000, Grade I Vessels Maturity, quarter horses 4 and up, 400 yards
• $30,000 Independence Day Handicap, quarter horses 3 and up, 300 yards
DOWN THE STRETCH
• Kopion (with jockey Kazushi Kimura) is a heavy, 3-5 favorite on the morning line for the Great Lady M. Stakes on Saturday, but not because her competition is weak in the Grade II sprint. The six fillies and mares have 17 stakes victories among them, including the Grade I’s at Santa Anita and Churchill Downs by 4-year-old Kopion; a Grade I and last year’s Great Lady M. by 5-year-old Sweet Azteca (Juan Hernandez); three group wins in Argentina by 6-year-old Super Shine; and a graded win by 4-year-old One Magic Philly (Antonio Fresu). Kopion drew post 6, Sweet Azteca post 2. There’s no show wagering. The race is the eighth of nine on the second-to-last day of Los Alamitos’ early summer thoroughbred meet.
• Owner and breeder John Harris, a California racing industry leader and owner of Harris Ranch in Coalinga, died Thursday, 12 days before his 82nd birthday, the farm announced. Racing as Harris Farms and in partnerships, his best horses included Soviet Problem, Work the Crowd and Unzip Me.
• Trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who died Saturday at age 89 in Louisville, Ky., was honored with a moment of silence and winner’s-circle ceremony Sunday evening at Los Alamitos, where the quarter-horse and thoroughbred racing Hall of Famer first gained prominence. Lukas’ family said it would hold private services, with a public celebration of life to be arranged. The family asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Oaklawn Park or Churchill Downs Backside Chaplaincy or the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, “two causes that Wayne held close to his heart.”
• Locked (Jose Ortiz riding) heads a field of eight for the Grade II Suburban Handicap at Saratoga on Friday. It’s part of the Thursday-through-Sunday July 4 Racing Festival, moved from Belmont Park, which is under reconstruction. Locked, trained by Todd Pletcher for Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, returns to the 1¼-mile distance of his 8½-length Santa Anita Handicap victory in March after running fourth to Fierceness in the 1 1/16-mile Alysheba Stakes at Churchill Downs in May.
• Two thoroughbreds died from injuries at Los Alamitos last weekend. Mr. Dreamcycle, a California-bred 4-year-old gelding with three wins, was injured in a race Saturday night. Expect Love, a Cal-bred 3-year-old filly without a win, was injured in training Sunday. By unofficial count, based on California Horse Racing Board data, they’re the 17th and 18th horses to die in racing and training from musculoskeletal and non-musculoskeletal causes at Los Alamitos and Santa Anita since the Southern California season began Dec. 26. That’s more than the 15 deaths at those tracks in the first six months of the season a year ago, and more than the average of about 16 in this span in the past four years. The increase in deaths has occurred at Los Alamitos, while Santa Anita’s numbers are in line with past years.
• Mindframe rose from No. 4 to No. 1 in the National Thoroughbred Racing Association poll after the 4-year-old colt and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. held off Sierra Leone to win the Grade I Stephen Foster Stakes at Churchill Downs on Saturday. Todd Pletcher-trained Mindframe is the fifth horse to be No. 1 this year, following White Abarrio, Thorpedo Anna, Fierceness and Raging Torrent.
• Flavien Prat leads North American jockeys in purses ($16.3 million) and Brad Cox leads trainers ($14.9 million) halfway through 2025. Prat led in earnings for all of 2024, and Cox led in 2021 and 2023. Journalism was responsible for big gains by jockey Umberto Rispoli, up from 20th in 2025 to ninth now, and trainer Michael McCarthy, up from 22nd to 11th.
• Journalism went 4 furlongs in 47 4/5 seconds, 19th fastest of 109 workouts at the distance at Santa Anita Sunday morning, in the first timed training session for the Santa Anita Derby and Preakness winner since he finished second to Sovereignty in the Belmont Stakes. McCarthy told the Daily Racing Form’s Steve Andersen the colt’s summer racing plans aren’t set.
— Kevin Modesti