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.
ONCE AGAIN LONE STAR PARK HAS THE BEST MEMORIAL DAY RACING IN THE U.S.
For the best racing in the U.S. on Memorial Day, May 31, you’ll find it at Lone Star Park where there are seven stakes on the 11-race Lone Star Million Day program including two Grade 3s.
Shippers flew to Dallas from California and Kentucky in mid-week to join regional runners and boost the field sizes as well as the quality of racing.
The $300,000 Lone Star Park Handicap headlines the card and should be highly competitive from start to finish of its 1 1/16 miles with Jim and Marilyn Helzer’s front-running Euroears carrying local hopes as he makes his second start around two turns. He’ll need to have something left in the tank entering the stretch as California invaders Mythical Power and Awesome Gem, along with New York shipper Redding Colliery, can be expected to make their presence felt.
Bart Evans bred, owned and trained Wasted Tears looms an odds-on choice of six to repeat last year’s win in the one-mile $200,000 Ouija Board Distaff (G3) as she tries to remain undefeated on turf. The $100,000 7-furlong Cinemine Stakes drew 13 3-year-old fillies, including Jerry Durant and Bill Jordan’s two-time Texas Stallion Stakes victress Tin Top Cat. The $75,000 Valid Expectations attracted seven older fillies and mares, including the Bob Baffert-trained Mother Ruth, for its 6-furlong renewal.
For males, the secondary feature is the $150,000 Dallas Turf Cup with 11 older runners entered in the 1 1/16-mile test. The $100,000 USA Stakes, also at 1 1/16 miles, lured nine 3-year-olds, including Clarence Scharbauer’s Texas homebred Coyote Legend, who will be seeking his sixth straight win while trying turf and open company for the first time. The $50,000 Carter McGregor Jr. Memorial Stakes lured seven Texas-breds for its renewal over 6 furlongs.
Some of the nation’s top jockeys have accepted mounts on the Million Day card including Martin Garcia, who rode Lookin At Lucky to win the recent Preakness Stakes. Shawn Bridgemohan, David Flores and Rosie Napravnik have also accepted mounts.
As an added attraction, Bill Casner, who resides in Flower Mound and operates WinStar Farm in Kentucky with his Dallas partner Kenny Troutt, will be on hand to autograph the Kentucky Derby winner’s circle color photos of WinStar’s homebred Super Saver. Casner will also make the Lone Star Park Handicap trophy presentation to the winning connections.
MONMOUTH PARK’S OPENING WEEKEND OF BOUTIQUE 50-DAY MEET IS A SMASHER
Horseplayers spoke loud and clear last weekend as they welcomed the boutique 50-day Monmouth Park race meet with its $1,000,000 per day average purse structure by betting $16.4 million on the quality product in two days. That was nearly $9 million more than the first two days of the 2009 meet. Some of the bettors were right here in Texas judging by the sharp increases in play on Monmouth’s signal at Lone Star Park and Sam Houston Race Park in comparison with last year. Unfortunately the shift to Monmouth had a direct negative effect on both Texas locations, which reported handle declines on Lone Star’s product.
LADY GIACOMO, BLUSHING SIS, ACES N KINGS, OMINOUS THOMAS SCORE IN TRIALS
Two daughters of 2005 Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo headed the filly qualifiers for the TTA Sales Futurity Finals that will be run on June 5 as Lone Star Park’s local feature on Belmont Stakes Day.
Lady Giacomo, owned by JRita Young Thoroughbreds LLC and trained by Allen Milligan, proved to be the fastest winner of the four Trials held on May 20 and 21st. Bred in Texas by Virginia Jago Elder, Lady Giacomo led throughout drawing off by 5 ¼ lengths as jockey Martin Escobar took her under wraps late as she completed the five furlongs in :58.44 for her second win in as many starts.
Blushing Sis, owned by Cash Asmussen’s Markpoint Stable and trained by him, won the other filly Trial in :59.19. Jeanne Stasny bred this Giacomo filly under her Blossom Racing Stable banner. The other 10 filly qualifiers are made up of Wayne Sanders and Larry Hirsch’s Last Legend and Final Wonder, Heiligbrodt Racing Stable’s Fastation, Markpoint Stable’s Lady Primal, Royal Colors Racing LLC’s Pink October, Bill Wilks and Richard Hessee’s My Girl Marie, Larry Dyson’s Girlie Legend, Tigertail Ranch’s Good Fairy, Sharon Pittman’s Charlan Sue and Charles Carter and Dyson’s Political Gal.
Caroline Dodwell’s Aces N Kings, ridden by Eguard Tejera and trained by Bob Young, put his sharp speed and perseverance on display again as he dueled early and drew away late to a 2-length win over Tamtastic, another Sanders-Hirsch partnership interest, to post the fastest final time of :58.86 in the Colt/Gelding Trials. Aces N Kings, the only son of Jet Phone, is now 2-for-2 as he heads to the Finals.
Steve Asmussen-trained Ominous Thomas, debuting for the Wilks-Hessee partnership, overcame a bobble at the start of his racing bow to rally from midpack and win going away by 3¼ lengths in :59.06.
Don Childers’ Evil Officer ran second. The other eight qualifiers for the Colt/Gelding Finals are Michael Erwin’s Beau Missile, Dressman and Mitchek Ltd.’s I B an Intimidator, Jerry Durant and Bill Jordan’s Valid Promise, Heiligbrodt Racing Stable’s Gloucester, W. S. Farish’s Jazz Party, Misty Meadow Farms’ Run Run Run, Dyson and Carter’s Care to Win, and Dyson’s solely owned Epic Match.
PROMINENT HOUSE DEMOCRAT ANNOUNCES FORUM ON TEXAS GAMBLING ISSUE
Representative Garnet Coleman (D-Houston), chair of the Legislative Study group House Caucus, has announced plans to host a forum on the issue of gambling to help prepare fellow Texas House members on the public policy implications of expanded gaming in Texas.
In his press release announcing plans for the forum, Representative Coleman said, “This will be a Gaming 101 forum. Members need to receive information about the public policy of gaming. We have the opportunity to look at what has happened in other states that have passed gaming, and review the long range impact for Texas.”
Representative Coleman observed, “In the year since the session ended, there has been a legislative vacuum when it comes to this specific issue. Members deserve to have as much information as possible as they prepare for the next legislative session where various proposals for expanded gambling will certainly be proposed.”
Fast furlongs...The May issue of the TTA Express will arrive shortly after Memorial Day so that coverage of Lone Star Million Day can be included...Former TTA Directors Greg Goodman and John T.L. Jones III are listed among 28 candidates for election to fill 13 openings on the Breeders’ Cup board of members and trustees...Within days after the New York Racing Association sent layoff letters to 1,400 employees, New York State officials recognized the imminent prospects of Belmont Park shutting down four days after the Belmont Stakes and cancellation of the prestigious Saratoga meet and found the means to loan NYRA $25 million to keep operating...Lone Star premieres the first of six Saturday Jockeys and Java promotions at 8:30am this Saturday when the public can watch morning workouts from the Courtyard of Champions, hear guest interviews and then get a behind-the-scenes backstretch tour...Harrah’s Operating Company bought Thistledown for $43 million at an auction of the Magna Entertainment-owned track last Tuesday after having reneged on a bid to buy the Cleveland, OH, area track for $89.5 million one year ago...Princess Haya, Eileen Hartis’ 2009 Texas Horse of the Year, takes on an old rival in 2008 champion turf mare Forever Together as well as the multiple graded stakes-winning California campaigner Tuscan Evening when she makes her second start following a 6-month layoff in Hollywood Park’s $250,000 Gamely Stakes (G1) this Saturday...Lady Giacomo and Ominous Thomas, two of the TTA Sales Futurity Trial winners, are among the first graduates of Richard and Frances Hessee’s Trophy Club Training Center, which they purchased last year...The May 31 deadline for accrediting Texas-bred yearlings for $75 has been extended one day to Tuesday, June 1, because the normal deadline coincides with the Memorial Day holiday...Both days of this year’s Breeders’ Cup will end under Churchill Downs’ new lights...We were sorry to learn of the death of 14-year-old Flaming Quest, Charlotte Voss’ Texas stallion who stood at her Double Star Stable in Leonard and was one of the only sons of English and French champion Rainbow Quest standing in North America...Texas-bred Chief of Affairs will see if he is the fastest of the fastest when he goes 6 furlongs in the $100,000 Aristides Stakes (G3) against front-running Churchill Downs Handicap winner Atta Boy Roy and another stakes-winning speedster in Cash Refund at the Louisville oval on Saturday...The National Museum of Racing in Saratoga Springs, NY, will welcome four new inductees later this year in jockey Randy Romero and champions Azeri, Best Pal and Point Given...Our deepest sympathy goes out to the families of Hilmer Schmidt and Dorothy MacManus, who passed away earlier this week. Schmidt had been in failing health for several months. His death came less than two weeks after the passing of Skip Away, the 1997 Horse of the Year raised by Schmidt at his Indian Hill Farm in Ocala, FL, before being sold to Carolyn and Sonny Hine for $30,000 at an OBS 2-year-olds in training sale. MacManus and her late husband, Watson, were staunch supporters of Texas racing and their founding and support of Retama Park’s Turf Club will remain a lasting legacy.