Agreement Is Set for Standardbreds to Train at Del Mar
Southern California harness horsemen began moving many of their standardbreds to Del Mar Sunday after a 42-night stand concluded Saturday at Los Alamitos Race Course.
The horsemen were rescued from limbo Saturday by the Western Standardbred Assn., which had been negotiating for the state-owned Del Mar site during the week with the California Horse Racing Board, California Thoroughbred Breeders Assn. and the 22nd Agricultural District of Del Mar.
Standardbreds will be allowed to use the Del Mar race track through Feb. 2 and remain in the barn area through Feb. 8.
Quarter horses take over Los Alamitos this week for a meet to begin Friday and run through Feb. 2. Harness horses return the following week for a 10-week meet through mid-April.
“Probably 600 to 700 horses from here will go down, plus another 300 yearlings from the East,” said Lloyd Arnold, president and general manager of Los Alamitos. “The Del Mar training site is very critical. Without it, we’d be in trouble. Horses have to be ready for opening day here.
“Still, we won’t open here in February unless we can put on a first-class meet. If we don’t get the Pomona dates we’ve requested from April to August, the horses at Del Mar will leave. Del Mar is just a holding pen until we find out what the CHRB is going to do with our dates.”
Los Alamitos has applied to lease dates from Fairplex Park in Pomona.
The Los Alamitos meet concluded with an average nightly attendance of 4,495 and an average nightly handle of $773,985.
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