Los Alamitos cancels card due to lack of entries

Los Alamitos’ hopes for a four-day closing week went by the wayside Saturday when Thursday’s card had to be canceled due to a lack of entries.

The Los Angeles County Fair meet at Los Alamitos opened last Friday with three days of racing and continued this week with a similar schedule. Racing secretary Bob Moreno told Horse Racing Nation Los Alamitos had hoped to race four days the final week, “but it wasn’t a guarantee and we knew that going into it.

“It was lack of entries,” Moreno said of Thursday's cancellation. “I had about five or six races I could have used, but I’m bringing them back as extras on Friday so we can have at least a decent final three days.”

Moreno added this was the first time since Los Alamitos started running daytime Thoroughbreds in 2014 that a card was canceled due to not enough entries.

“We’ve canceled a couple days for different reasons, but I don’t recall where we’ve had this before,” Moreno said.

On the opening weekend of the meet, Los Alamitos also was forced to cancel the $75,000 Beverly J. Lewis Stakes for 3-year-old filly sprinters due to a lack of entries. Moreno said a similar overnight stakes will be run in its place the final weekend, which is named the Lucky Spell Stakes.

The Lucky Spell is named in honor of a top female sprinter in California during the 1970s, who was trained by Henry Moreno, Bob Moreno’s uncle. The Southern California racing circuit shifts to Santa Anita on Oc. 1 for its stakes-filled autumn meet.