The Las Flores Handicap is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually during the first week of April at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California. Open to fillies and mares age four and older, the Grade III event is contested on Pro-Ride synthetic dirt over a distance of six and one half furlongs.
Until 2008 the race was run at a distance of six furlongs.
Inaugurated in 1951, the Las Flores Handicap was run for three-year-olds and up from 1951 through 1959, for four-year-olds and up from January 1960, 1972, 1975, 1981 through 1987, and again in 1989, and for all ages December 1972, 1973 and 1979. It was run in January and December 1960, 1972, 1977 and 1987, in December 1960 through 1970, and December 1977, 1978 and 1987.
The Las Flores Handicap was run in two divisions in 1963. There was no race in 1953, 1969, 1971, 1974, 1980 or 1988.
Famous quotes containing the words flores and/or handicap:
“At Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay,
And a pinnace, like a fluttered bird, came flying from far away:
‘Spanish ships of war at sea! we have sighted fifty-three!’”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“I have the handicap of being born with a special language to which I alone have the key.”
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880)