Have a comment or question about this week's update? Send an e-mail to davidh@texasthoroughbred.com. Read past updates in the Executive Director's Update archive.
LONE STAR DERBY, TEXAS STALLION STAKES DIVISIONS HEADLINERS ON SATURDAY
Lone Star Park’s 10-race Saturday card is headlined by the 14th running of the $200,000 Lone Star Derby (G3) coupled with two $100,000 Texas Stallion Stakes divisions, the Stymie for colts and geldings and the Got Koko for fillies.
The Lone Star Derby drew a field of six with the fleet Bret Calhoun-trained Henshin Hero trying to extend his speed around two turns as he attempts 1 1/16 miles as the 8-5 morning line favorite. Game On Dude, fifth in the Derby Trial (G3) after running seventh in the Florida Derby (G1), is second choice at 9-5. He has been sent to Texas by trainer Bob Baffert, who is seeking his fourth Lone Star Derby win. The late-running Crider, trained by Steve Asmussen for Heiligbrodt Racing Stable, may find a perfect race set up for his closing kick if Henshin Hero and Game On Dude get into an early speed duel.
Clarence Scharbauer Jr.’s Coyote Legend is once again the horse to beat in the fourth and final race in this TSSS for foals of 2007. He is the 4-5 odds-on choice to outrun six rivals going 1 1/16 miles, including Ackerley Brothers’ Big Texas Daddy and Tom Durant’s El Oso. Coyote Legend is seeking his fifth consecutive stakes victory having taken the Groovy, Triple Sec, Jim’s Orbit division of the TSSS, and then beating older Texas-breds in the Premiere, the first race of this Lone Star season.
Jerry Durant and Bill Jordan’s Tin Top Cat heads the Got Koko division as the 9-5 favorite. She has eight rivals including Millennium Farm’s Camille’s Appeal, who showed her fondness for Lone Star’s surface coming from off the pace to win the first race of this Series last July. She is second choice at 5-2.
Fans attending the big race day can also enjoy the track’s Inaugural Chili Cook-Off, which will take place in the Courtyard of Champions. Proceeds from the competition among chili chefs will benefit two non-profit racehorse adoption organizations, Lynn Rorke Reardon’s LOPE Texas and Donna Keen’s Remember Me Racehorse Rescue.
2010 KENTUCKY DERBY WINNER SUPER SAVER HAD STRONG TEXAS CONNECTIONS
The Texas connections to Super Saver, the 2010 Kentucky Derby winner, were strong! Consider:
·Super Saver raced in the colors of his owner/breeder, Lexington, KY-based WinStar Farm, the nom de course of Bill Casner, a Flower Mound resident, and his business partner, Kenny Troutt, of Dallas.
·Super Saver gave one of North America’s leading trainers, Todd Pletcher, who was born in San Antonio, his first Kentucky Derby victory in 10 years of trying.
·Super Saver was the selection of Glen Fullerton, a 40-year-old Houston software designer, who got to make a $100,000 bet after winning CNBC’s Derby DreamBet Prize Package sweepstakes and he is now $900,000 to the good.
·Casner is a former director of the Texas Thoroughbred Association and a major player in Kentucky legislative efforts. On the Churchill Downs winners’ stand waiting to accept the gold Derby trophy from Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, Casner was described in one report as looking like a Texas Ranger standing tall and erect with his signature cowboy hat. Casner was born in El Paso and is a graduate of Tarleton State University in Stephenville.
·Troutt and Casner met in Nebraska in the early 1970s when they each had a claim in for a cheap horse. After a few short years owning moderate stock, they left the horse business for other ventures before partnering in Excel Communications, a cellular phone network, and made fortunes that led them back into the horse business in the early 1990s, and this time at the high end of the business.
Our heartiest congratulations go to Bill Casner, Kenny Troutt, Todd Pletcher and Glen Fullerton.
Thanks for making Texas so prominent in the outcome of the 136th Run for the Roses.
AD HOC GAMBLING STUDY COMMITTEE PROPOSED BY HOUSE DEMOCRATIC LEADER
Leaders lead, and Representative Jim Dunnam (D-Waco), the leader of the Democratic Caucus in the Texas House, has taken a first step to address an issue being discussed in Texas, which he terms “an elephant in the room these days---gambling.”
Dunnam observed that the subject has become a topic of much discussion with both proponents and opponents in view of the state’s enormous projected budget shortfall that the Texas Legislature will have to address when it convenes in 2011. He also noted that Speaker Joe Straus III had made no interim charges to either standing committees or select committees to study the potential of gaming in Texas due to a conflict of interest caused by his family’s racetrack holdings.
Late last week, Dunnam sent a letter to three other leaders in the House of Representatives asking them to join him in establishing a bipartisan ad hoc committee to fully explore all aspects of any and all gaming proposals. The letter was addressed to Representative Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood), chair of the House Republican Caucus, Representative Garnet Coleman (D-Houston), chair of the Legislative Study Group, and Representative Wayne Christian (R-Center), chair of the Texas Conservative Coalition. Dunnam suggested that each group consider appointing three members to the committee.
Fast furlongs...The Maryland Jockey Club’s “Get Your Preak On” media campaign for the 134th running of the Preakness Stakes, the second jewel of the Triple Crown, has prompted considerable controversy as to its meaning, but getting people talking is a measure of an ad campaign’s success...Racing was supposed to return to Raton by Memorial Day this year at a brand new track, but it won’t happen any time soon now that the New Mexico Gaming Control Board has revoked the gaming license after a series of delays and no sign of a grandstand or racing oval...The New York Racing Association, facing serious cash flow problems, may be kept afloat by a $17 million advance from the state to be paid back after proceeds from video lottery operations begin to flow, but when the payback will come is anyone’s guess as it’s already been nine years since VLTs were authorized at Aqueduct and no operator has been chosen to date...The Louisiana Racing Commission has approved a request for an 84-day 2010-11 meet at Fair Grounds Race Course and Slots with opening day returning to its traditional start on Thanksgiving Day...The American Graded Stakes Committee has reinstated the grades of three stakes run last year at Pennsylvania tracks after reaching an agreement with the state regulatory body...Penn National Gaming Inc. and MI Developments have agreed to establish a joint venture to own and operate the two Maryland Jockey Cub tracks, Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course...Two U.S. congressmen have given officials of The Jockey Cub, National Thoroughbred Racing Association and the Association of Racing Commissioners International a May 14 deadline to submit written responses to questions concerning adoption of horse and track safety regulations and the monitoring of their effectiveness...Something is wrong with this picture: While New York City Off-Track Betting Corporation is moving to delay mandated payments to the racing industry, more than 1,000 of its unionized workers are in line for pay raises or early retirement deals...One astute bettor at Retama Park and another at Sam Houston Race Park each cashed winning $1 superfecta tickets worth $101,284 after tabbing the first four finishers in this year’s Kentucky Derby...Delaware’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to be able to offer Las Vegas-style sports betting met a sudden death last week when the judges decided not to hear the case...Congratulations to Paul Estok, one of my former students at the University of Arizona Racetrack Industry Program, on being named executive director of Harness Tracks of America, a position held by the legendary Stan Bergstein for nearly 50 years...Equibase News Service reported a 2.52% decline in wagering for April compared with 2009, the smallest drop of any month this year...Meetings, meetings, meetings and all in Austin: Texas Horse Organizations for Racing, Showing and Eventing (Texas HORSE) will hold a regularly scheduled meeting next Wednesday...2011 racing dates will be the prime topic of discussion when representatives of all segments of the Texas industry convene on Thursday...The Texas Racing Commission has rescheduled its next meeting for Wednesday, July 7.