Stakes race named for Soi Phet

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Soi Phet and jockey Kent Desormeaux win the $200,000 Los Alamitos Mile Saturday, September 6, 2014 at Los Alamitos Race Course, Cypress, CA. ©Benoit Photo

CYPRESS, Calif. —Three stakes – including a pair of graded events – worth $450,000 highlight the Summer Thoroughbred Festival at Los Alamitos.

The two-week meet will begin Friday, June 26 and continue through Sunday, July 5.

The richest event on the calendar is the Grade II, $200,000 Great Lady M. Stakes for fillies & mares at 6 ½ furlongs. Won for the second consecutive year in 2019 by multiple graded stakes winner Marley’s Freedom, the Great Lady M. will be offered Saturday, July 4.

The other graded race is the Grade III, $150,000 Los Alamitos Derby, which was won a year ago by the Bob Baffert-trained Game Winner. Baffert has won the nine-furlong contest for 3-year-olds, which will also be run July 4, three of the last four years.

Before Game Winner, the Derby was won by Shared Belief (2014), Gimme Da Lute (2015), Accelerate (2016), eventual 3-year-old champion West Coast (2017) and Once On Whiskey (2018).

Besides Marley’s Freedom, the four other winners of the Great Lady M. at Los Alamitos were Doinghardtimeagain (2014), Fantastic Style (2015), Eclipse Award winner Finest City (2016) and Skye Diamonds (2017).

The other stakes on the schedule is the $100,000 Soi Phet for California breds (3-year-olds & up). Formerly known as the Bertrando, the one-mile race will be run Saturday, June 27.

The Soi Phet honors the California bred gelding who won five stakes at Los Alamitos prior to his retirement in the summer of 2019.

The son of Tizbud, who earned nearly $1 million after being claimed for $16,000 by trainer Leonard Powell for a partnership May 23, 2013 at Hollywood  Park, won the race now named for him in 2014 and 2018. His other Los Alamitos stakes wins came in the 2014 Los Alamitos Mile and the E.B. Johnston in 2016 and 2017.

Soi Phet, who now resides at Old Friends Farm in Georgetown, Ky., finished his career with 15 wins in 64 starts and earnings of $1,023,917.

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