Los Alamitos Is Less Than A Mile Track
 

MSG+ covered an hour's worth of TVG yesterday, including the first two races from Los Alamitos. Both of these races were at 1 mile. The starting gate was just barely behind the 1/16th pole - or at least clearly less than 104 feet behind it, the stated amount of the run-up. Furthermore, there is a short, black-and-white-striped pole, presumably the 7 1/2-furlong pole, approximately 100 feet past the finish line, followed by a taller, green-and-white-striped pole, the 7-furlong pole, that is definitely on the clubhouse turn. The taller-still red-and-white-striped 3/4 pole is without a doubt on the backstretch, as is the 1/2-mile pole.

Does anyone know how much less than a mile around the track is, or what the distance between the finish line and the first turn is? I'm guessing that the latter has to be 330 feet, otherwise they wouldn't dare run 1-mile races with such a short run into such a tight turn if it was less than that.

You need to check their filings with the CHRB for the exact numbers, but it's approximately 7 furlongs and 130 yards around, with less than 100 yards run into the first turn. That short run into the turn is a common feature of bullrings, which is what Los Al is.

Thanks for the CHRB lead - but that 1,380-foot-long stretch is anything but bullringish (Charles Town's stretch is 660 feet long - and Gulfstream's is 898 feet!).

It's still a bullring. Horses have to really corner well there, no different than if they were cheapos at Ferndale.

Hopefully Allred runs out of patience or money sooner rather than later. The enlarged track is a joke.

Depending on exactly what the distance from the finish line to the first turn is, the turns at Los Al could be as tight as 765 feet around. At the old Green Mountain Race Track, which could conceivably be making a comeback, the turns were a mere 706 feet around.

The far turn is wider than the clubhouse turn too. :)

Which is kinda silly - but true.

But what is SoCal supposed to do now that not only Hollywood but also Fairplex are gone? At least NoCal has the fair circuit.

The best solution is to combine SoCal and NorCal into 1 circuit, which was status quo 1938-1967.

The second best solution is to take a break from November 15-December 25.

The homestretch is that long to accomodate all the Quarter Horse races and subsequent gallop-outs.

You sound like Marc Siegelaub and Brad Thomas - who in the '80s petitioned NYRA for a restoration of the early '70s NYRA racing season, which ended with the Display Handicap (a race that I loved) as the featured race on the last day before the first day of winter, and resumed with the Paumunok Handicap as the featured race on March 1.

Well, 2 things:

1. NYRA claims to make money on the winter meet. I don't necessarily buy that, but if NYRA is right then that's a reason to run the meet. No Southern California race meet in early December has ever been profitable. Not Hollywood, not Los Al.

2. It isn't as though shipping to Florida in the winter is a dumb way to do business in the east. Not so much about the Display Handicap, but just because racing in freezing climates is highly unpleasant.

California's problem is that its tracks are small compared with tracks in other parts of the country.

Maybe a new track can be built with specifications like this, as I have posted here previously:


Main Track

1 1/4 mile symmetrical oval (straightaways 1,650 feet, turns 1,650 feet each)
Distance from last turn to finish line = 1,320 feet
Distance from finish line to first turn = 330 feet
Backstretch chute = 1 1/16 miles
"Ellis Park" chute = 1 1/8 miles
"Nursery Course" chute = 3 furlongs
Canterbury Park "nub chute" = 4 furlongs (660 feet long, stem of chute at 7/16 pole, at 108-degree angle)
For 1 3/16 mile races, run-up is 150 feet; horses loaded into gate from the outside in rather than the inside out (see 1 1/4 mile races on the dirt at Belmont) with temporary "mini-rail" guiding the horses onto the clubhouse turn at the appropriate angle
Width of track = 120 feet throughout


Outer Turf Course

1 1/8 mile oval (straightaways 1,650 feet, turns 1,320 feet each)
Distance from last turn to finish line = 1,320 feet
Distance from finish line to first turn = 330 feet
Outside rail of Outer Turf Course = 18 feet inside of inside rail of Main Track (same as Laurel)
Width of course = 87 feet throughout


Inner Turf Course

6 1/2 furlong oval (straightaways 1,320 feet, turns 825 feet each)
Distance from last turn to finish line = 990 feet
Distance from finish line to first turn = 330 feet
Outside rail of Inner Turf Course = 20.6 feet inside of inside rail of Outer Turf Course
9/10 mile (7 furlongs, 132 feet - same as Golden Gate Fields and formerly, same as Santa Anita) course with inner rail set at 73 feet, allowing 5 furlongs and 1 1/2 mile races
One chute = at 1/4 mile pole, for 1 mile 70 yards and 1 1/16 mile races on 6 1/2 furlong course
Width of course = 73 feet on 6 1/2 furlong course and 64 feet on 9/10 mile course


With a 120-foot-wide main track that can accommodate very large fields, and a long stretch which should prevent any ridiculous speed bias, and every distance able to be run on both dirt and turf, such a track is bound to be a huge success.

The same is also true of Churchill Downs, and this is slightly off topic, but it shows the lunacy of CD management to run a huge 20 horse Derby field with its' mad cavalry charge into the tighter 1st turn. Even the home straight is too narrow to accommodate the 2 needed starting gates. The starting chute had to be especially widened. Dangerous insanity.

The 2-turn dirt mile is a great race that you obviously don't see on the larger tracks. I much prefer it to the 1 turn mile. Hollywood Park had that 7 1/2f that was nothing but an abbreviated 1 turn mile and then the 1 1/16th mile 2-turn in which they were in the clubhouse turn 5 steps out of the gate. I hated both those races.

This would do absolutely nothing.