Los Alamitos Race Course
Los Alamitos Race Course is a horse racing track in Cypress (not Los Alamitos which is a bit of a story itself). What started out as informal match races on the Vessels Ranch in 1947 has grown into year-round Quarter Horse racing in California. The first parimutuel meet at Los Alamitos was held in 1951. It rained for ten of the eleven days of the meet after which Vessels sank $100,000 of his personal funds into improvements at the track. The 1980s proved a time of great change as the track passed from one owner to another. When Los Alamitos was put up for sale in 1990, Ed Allred and R. D. Hubbard, owner of Hollywood Park, became 50/50 owners. 1995 saw the opening of the $5 million Vessels Club, the lavish turf club restaurant which has been named the top sports park restaurant in Southern California.
Cypress, Orange County
Photographer: Andrew Schmidt