Friday opener: Chromies are part of Los Alamitos summer lore

Since daytime Thoroughbred racing returned to Los Alamitos in the summer of 2014, the Orange County track has been the place where the stars have come to play.

Friday marks the start of the 10th summer season, with the opener scheduled for 4 p.m. EDT.

Months before favored I’m No Patsy won the first race of the inaugural Thoroughbred summer festival July 3, 2014, Los Alamitos already was playing host to an eventual champion and one of the most popular horses ever to compete in California.

Hollywood Park ran its final race Dec. 22, 2013. That day, California Chrome completed his 2-year-old season by winning the King Glorious, the final stakes race ever run there. Then he was moved to Los Alamitos.

Click here for Los Alamitos entries and results.

Owned by Steve Coburn and Perry Martin and trained by Art Sherman, the son of Lucky Pulpit out of the Not for Love mare Love the Chase spent the rest of his brilliant career based at Los Alamitos.

His works over the track were much anticipated and well attended, and Sherman always was willing to interact with his fans, better known as Chromies, as well as with the racing media.

Before California Chrome was done, he had won the Santa Anita Derby (G1), Kentucky Derby, Preakness and grassy Hollywood Derby (G1) in 2014 en route to his Eclipse awards as champion 3-year-old male and horse of the year. He also won the Dubai World Cup (G1), Pacific Classic (G1) and Awesome Again Stakes (G1) in 2016 as well as another horse-of-the-year title.

California Chrome’s next-to-last race was his lone start over what was his home track for some three years. He dominated nine rivals, winning the $180,000 Winter Challenge Stakes by 12 lengths in a track record 1:40.03 for the 1 1/16 miles.

No fewer than 10 other champions have competed at Los Alamitos in the ensuing years, beginning with Take Charge Brandi, who won the first locally run Starlet Stakes (G1) during the 2014 winter meet, wrapping up the Eclipse Award as the champion 2-year-old filly six weeks after her stunning 66-1 upset in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

A year later, Abel Tasman won the second Starlet at Los Alamitos, the first of six Grade 1 victories that included the Kentucky Oaks. Her career saw her capture the Eclipse as the top 3-year-old filly of 2016.

The Los Alamitos Derby, which was known as the Swaps Stakes (G2) when offered at Hollywood Park between 1974 and 2013, has produced four horses who were Eclipse Award winners and one who was a Breeders’ Cup Classic champion and horse of the year.

Shared Belief, who won the final Hollywood Futurity (G1) in Inglewood, Calif., in 2013, won the first Los Alamitos Derby in 2014, scoring by 4 1/4 lengths for a partnership led by radio talk-show host Jim Rome and Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.

Three of the next five Los Alamitos Derby winners were 2016 hero Accelerate, who went on to become the Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and horse of the year in 2018; West Coast, the champion 3-year-old male of 2017; and Game Winner, the 2019 winner who was the 2-year-old male titlist in 2018.

A little more than five months before his Los Alamitos Derby win, Accelerate finished second, defeated by a half-length by Westbrook in a race at six furlongs April 17 during the spring 2016 meet. A neck behind him that day: fellow debutant Arrogate, who went on to become the 2016 horse of the year and a multiple graded-stakes winner for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert and Juddmonte.

The Great Lady M. Stakes (G2), a sprint for older fillies and mares, was another holdover from Hollywood Park, where it was called the Sequoia Handicap (1941-1978) and A Gleam Handicap (1979-2013). It has been graced by champions Finest City and Gamine.

A daughter of City Zip owned by Seltzer Thoroughbreds and trained by Ian Kruljac, Finest City won the 2016 renewal more than six months before her win in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint clinched an Eclipse Award as the nation’s top female sprinter.

Gamine, the female sprint champion of 2020, won the 2021 Great Lady M. by a record 10 lengths for Baffert and owner Michael Lund Petersen.

Although he never won a graded stakes, Soi Phet was one of the most popular horses to race at Los Alamitos. The California-bred gelding earned more than $1 million after being claimed for $16,000 by trainer Leonard Powell for a partnership that included Mathilde Powell, the Benowitz family trust and Paul Viskovich. The son of Tizbud won the Bertrando, the first stakes run at Los Alamitos on July 3, 2014. It was the first of five stakes successes for him, including another score in the Bertrando as a 10-year-old in 2018.

Baffert, who had much quarter-horse success at Los Alamitos before switching to Thoroughbreds full time more than 30 years ago, has been a big supporter of the local Thoroughbred meets and the dominant trainer. He has won or shared 14 training titles and has 36 stakes wins, including six in a row (2017-22) in the Starlet and the Los Alamitos Derby and the first seven (2014-20) victories in the Los Alamitos Futurity (G2).

Some of the Southern California circuit’s top trainers also have enjoyed success at Los Alamitos. Doug O’Neill, Peter Miller, John Sadler and Phil D’Amato rank among the top 10 in wins in the 26 meets run since 2014.

Hall of Fame jockeys Mike Smith and Kent Desormeaux have made the most of their opportunities at Los Alamitos. They both entered 2023 with 12 stakes victories, one fewer than career leader Corey Black, who won 13 during the Orange County Fair meets between 1977 and 1991.

Edwin Maldonado is on the cusp of becoming the all-time leading jockey at Los Alamitos. He entered the year with 120 wins, seven fewer than Martín Pedroza.

Los Alamitos also has been a venue where wealth has been distributed. Some of the smaller stables on the circuit and some jockeys have thrived over the uniquely shaped track, which features a 460-yard homestretch, one of the longest in North America. Since 2014, 229 trainers and 137 riders have won at least one race.

Many more figure to be added to the two lists in the coming years as Los Alamitos continues to build on its daytime Thoroughbred legacy.