Los Alamitos Eyes Big Time Horse Races

Los Alamitos Race Course is moving on plans to join the big leagues of horse racing.

The track is planning an expansion to hold thoroughbred horse racing by 2009. Los Alamitos, now home to quarter horses-a compact, muscular breed-could see a slew of changes.

Among them: a remodeling with 2,500 new grandstand seats, a track expansion and some 700 new barns to house 1,000 thoroughbred horses.

Up to $60 Million

Los Alamitos owner Edward Allred and Mike Pegram, a thoroughbred owner and racer, would fund the proposed expansion, which could cost $50 million to $60 million, Allred said.

The track has to clear a number of hurdles.

The expansion hinges on the closing of thoroughbred track Hollywood Park in Inglewood. Then Los Alamitos would need approvals from the city and neighboring Cypress.

Support from thoroughbred owners and others also is needed, said Allred, a doctor who also owns Long Beach-based gynecological practice Family Planning Associates Medical Group Inc.

"We'll spend a couple million dollars to get ready," he said. "We'll eat that if we have to."

Slots a Variable

Hollywood Park's closure is likely but not a given.

Louisville, Ky.-based Churchill Downs Inc., operator of the Kentucky Derby, sold Hollywood Park in July. Buyer Bay Meadows Land Co., owned by San Mateobased Stockbridge Real Estate Fund LP, made a three-year pledge to keep racing at the track.

Bay Meadows plans to redevelop the land unless California officials allow slot machines at racetracks.

That's proven elusive. Tracks have asked for slot machines for years to better compete with Indian casinos.

Some states, such as New Mexico and West Virginia, allow slots at tracks. Proceeds are used for race purses, which draw more horses and crowds.

"As other states get slot machines, they can offer more purse money to the horseman than we can," said Brad McKinzie, Los Alamitos racing consultant and former general manager. "That puts us at a competitive disadvantage here in California. It's going to suck away a lot of horses."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has raised the prospect of track slots as possible leverage in dealing with Indian casinos. But the notion still is a long shot with opposition from local officials and residents.

Allred gave $3.1 million to Proposition 68, an unsuccessful 2004 initiative that would have authorized 3,000 slot machines at his track.

"I'm not counting on it," he said of slot machines.

If slots were approved, then Hollywood Park likely would keep racing and Los Alamitos would stay as is, Allred said.

"We'd all go our separate ways," he said.

But Los Alamitos isn't sitting and waiting.

The track wants to be ready if Hollywood Park closes so it can take over thoroughbred racing without a lapse, McKinzie said. Officials from the two tracks have been talking and estimate a transition in the spring of 2009, he said.

"The biggest challenge is timing," he said. If Los Alamitos isn't ready, other venues would take up the dates.

"It would be a bad signal to the thoroughbred racing business in Southern California," McKinzie said.

Santa Anita Race Track and Del Mar Racetrack are the region's other thoroughbred tracks.

Planning Expansion

The 55-year-old Los Alamitos track has been doing environmental studies and has started sketching out plans to overhaul and expand for thoroughbreds.

Unused land at the track can house the expansion, according to Allred.

"It's a different world," Allred said. "You don't need huge racetracks."

Attendance at Los Alamitos has dwindled with Indian casinos and online betting.

The track, which simulcasts races year round, attracts about 4,500 people per day, down from 5,000 in 2001.

Allred said he doesn't expect a big attendance spike with the expansion. But the track should be more profitable, he said.

The track "still wouldn't have the return we'd like it to have," Allred said. "But it's better."

Plans call for expanding the track from five-eighths of a mile to one mile, adding a turf course and expanding the grandstand.

The backstretch also would be upgraded. A new barn is planned for thoroughbreds, which would race during the day and be overseen by Pegram.

Quarter horses still would run at night.

Sound and lighting upgrades are in the works.

McKinzie said he has been gauging interest from thoroughbred owners.

"The response has been overwhelmingly supportive," he said.

"Thoroughbred people realize the potential of a thoroughbred track in Orange County," McKinzie said. "We're far ahead of the game as far as that goes."

Cypress Undecided

Meanwhile, Allred said he's been talking with city officials in Cypress, who said it was too early to take an official position on the project since plans haven't been presented to the city yet.

Los Alamitos Race Course borders Cypress to the east.

The track has some prime real estate that's shrunk during the years. It's now about 200 acres versus its old 400 as chunks of land were taken over by others, including Grace Church and private school and a Costco.

Allred said he wants to keep the track but is keeping his options open if his thoroughbred plans flop.

The land could be developed as commercial space or homes, he said.

"I'm sure the city would like that," Allred said. "But I want to race."