Los Alamitos adds inaugural Becca Taylor Stakes to September meet

Los Alamitos is giving its September Thoroughbred meet a sharper competitive edge with the first running of the $100,000-guaranteed Becca Taylor Stakes, a new six-furlong sprint for 3-year-old fillies that lands on Sept. 12. The race joins a six-day meet that opens Friday, Sept. 11, runs through Sept. 20, and cards live racing Friday through Sunday on both weekends with first post at 1 p.m.

The Becca Taylor Stakes gives the meet a new focal point rather than just another line on the overnight. A short sprint for sophomore fillies tends to pull in a very specific kind of horse, the sharp 3-year-old that can turn speed into a stakes résumé before the fall calendar tightens. For California barns and regional connections, that creates a fresh target at exactly the point in the season when races begin to define who stays local, who stretches out, and who moves on to bigger spots later in the year.

The race also gives Los Alamitos a namesake with real track history. Becca Taylor, a California-bred mare foaled March 23, 2018, by Old Topper out of Lady Sax by General Meeting, was trained by Steven Miyadi for owner Nicholas B. Alexander. She won nine of 10 starts and banked $499,160, and her résumé includes the Grade II Great Lady M. Stakes at Los Alamitos on July 4, 2022, when she turned back three challengers in 1:15.25 for 6 1/2 furlongs.

That background matters because the new stakes is not being dropped into the meet as a ceremonial gesture. It ties the September program to a horse that already belongs to Los Alamitos history, and it gives the card a black-type race built around a recognizable California name. Becca Taylor was also named for Alexander’s niece, adding a family link to a race that now carries more than one layer of local meaning.

The Becca Taylor Stakes will not stand alone. The meet’s other stakes, the $75,000 E.B. Johnston on Sept. 19, will go one mile for California-bred or California-sired runners, preserving a familiar September anchor while the new fillies’ race adds another lane for the card. Los Alamitos has used the E.B. Johnston as a recurring September stakes, and the combination of the two races gives the meet a clearer identity: one stop for speed, state-bred depth, and a compact stakes schedule that now has a signature sprint of its own.