It is run over a distance of 6+1⁄2 furlongs on a dirt track and is held annually in June at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California.
The event is named in honor of United States Triple Crown and Hall of Fame trainer Lázaro "Laz" Barrera.
The Los Angeles Turf Club, which holds the event at Santa Anita, believe that the current Lázaro Barrera Stakes had its beginnings with the Playa Del Rey Stakes, which had its first race in 1953 at Hollywood Park Racetrack in Inglewood, California.
This event was held in the fall and was changed in 1991 by the Hollywood Turf Club to the Lazaro S. Barrera Handicap[3] four years before the renewal of the Playa Del Rey Stakes in 1995, the implied predecessor to the current event.
In 1999 the Hollywood Turf Club scheduled the Lazaro Barrera Memorial Stakes in late May at the current distance of 7 furlongs.