Horse racing notes: Los Alamitos hosting three stakes this weekend

LOS ALAMITOS LEADERS

(Through Thursday)

JOCKEYS / WINS

Abel Cedillo / 6

Edwin Maldonado / 5

Diego Herrera / 3

Drayden Van Dyke / 3

Kyle Frey / 2

TRAINERS / WINS

Steve Knapp / 3

Bob Baffert / 2

Andrew Lerner / 2

Peter Miller / 2

Jonathan Wong / 2

STAKES SCHEDULE AT LOS ALAMITOS

Saturday

• $75,000 Capote Stakes, 2-year-olds, 6 1/2 furlongs

Sunday

• $100,000 Los Alamitos Special, 3-year-olds and up, 1 1/16 miles

• $75,000 Dark Mirage Stakes, fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up, 1 mile

DOWN THE STRETCH

• Trainer Cesar De Alba is a believer in 17-year-old apprentice jockey Diego Herrera, tied with Drayden Van Dyke for third in the L.A. County Fair meet jockey standings at Los Alamitos with three victories through the first three days of the 10-day meet. De Alba is putting Herrera on “95 percent of his horses.” “He comes out here when he doesn’t have any workers at Santa Anita and he helps me gallop and he helps other people gallop, not just me,” De Alba said. “He’s like family to me now. He’s a hard worker and he listens. Some kids nowadays, I’ve seen some that tend to know it all. You tell them (something) and they blow you off because (they think) they know what they’re doing. He listens, takes everything in.”

• Los Alamitos will card three stakes this weekend during its L.A. County Fair meet – the $75,000 Capote Stakes for 2-year-olds Saturday and the $100,000 Los Alamitos Special for 3-year-olds and older and $75,000 Dark Mirage Stakes for fillies and mares Sunday. Trainer Bob Baffert will send out a pair in the Los Alamitos Special, which has been shortened to 1 1/16 miles from its original 1 1/4 miles. Magic On Tap, last in the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 21, and Leading Score will try to give Baffert his second victory in the race after he won the inaugural running with Dabster in 2018. Abel Cedillo will ride Magic On Tap and Edwin Maldonado has the mount on Leading Score.

• Santa Anita’s upcoming winter-spring meet that begins Dec. 26 will include 94 stakes races, 59 of them graded, with 10 Grade I events highlighted by the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on April 9. In addition, the Grade I Santa Anita Handicap’s purse has been raised to $650,000. The Big ‘Cap will take place March 5. Opening day will include six stakes, three of them $300,000 Grade I events – the Malibu, the La Brea and the American Oaks. In addition, three $200,000 Grade II stakes – Mathis Brothers Mile, San Antonio and San Gabriel – will also be run. Other major Grade I events during the meet will include a trio of $500,000 stakes – the Beholder Mile, Frank E. Kilroe Mile and Shoemaker Mile.

— Art Wilson