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2 TEXAS STALLION STAKES, ASSAULT, VALOR FARM ON STARS OF TEXAS DAY CARD
The annual Stars of Texas Day is on tap at Lone Star Park tomorrow, the penultimate weekend of racing before closing day on July 18. Texas-bred or Texas-sired runners filled all 10 races featured by the first two $100,000 5 ½-furlong races in the Texas Stallion Stakes Series for foals of 2008, the $50,000 Valor Farm Stakes for older fillies and mares, and the $75,000 Assault Stakes for older Texas-breds.
The Staunch Avenger Division of the TSSS drew 11 colts and geldings. Tamtastic (Early Flyer), runner-up in both his starts including the TTA Sales Futurity, has been installed as the 8-5 favorite starting from post 5. Bret Calhoun, closing in on his first Lone Star training title, conditions Tamtastic. From the rail out, the other entrants are Lonely Street (City Street), Swift Flyer (Wimbledon), Dewan Adieu (Heckle), Pacheco (Supreme Cat), Simply Gone (Intimidator), Jazz Party (Midway Road), Captain Olson (Captain Countdown), Alli’s Legend (Gold Legend), Valid Promise (Valid Expectations) and Powerfully (Intimidator). This division goes as the 9th race.
The Pan Zareta Division for fillies attracted seven starters with the Steve Asmussen-trained pair of Intimidating Woman (Intimidator) and Far too Primal (Primal Storm) listed as the 7-5 choice. Last Legend (Gold Legend) starts from post 2 between the entrymates. The other starters in post order are Rush the Net (Wimbledon), She’s Olmos Heaven (Olmos), Fastation (Valid Expectations) and Princess Turandot (Gold Legend). The Pan Zareta will be the first of the day’s stakes run as the third race.
The 1 1/16-mile Assault drew nine entrants including two couplings. Clarence Scharbauer’s homebred Coyote Legend will be seeking his third stakes victory during the current meet. He is the 6-5 choice to add to his wins in the opening day Premiere and the last leg of the TSSS one month later. Coyote Legend will have to be at his best to outrun the recent 15-length maiden winner Fudge Truffle and then hold off the late-running Poltergeist, who is shipping back from Arlington Park where he made his last three starts after losing to Coyote Legend by one length when third in the Premiere. Wasko and Red Hot Quest make up one entry. April’s Picture and Uncle Rose will also run coupled. The other starters are Mile Marker and Royal Hay Patch.
The 6-furlong Valor Farm is headed by Tom Durant’s speedy 7-5 morning line choice No Other Tone, a recent allowance winner after two stakes placings. Formal Flyer, Holly Lynne, Blackie’s Crown, Joy’s Paradise, Deer Lassie, Tin Top Cat, She's a Bond Girl, Forty Nine Sox and Dixie Dust complete the field.
The card also includes three starter allowance races, two maiden specials and one allowance race.
TRC APPROVES RETAMA’S REQUEST FOR 16 DAYS IN FALL, OPENS 2011 DATES PERIOD
The Texas Racing Commission approved the request of Retama Park officials to amend its racing schedule for the 2010 fall meet to run 16 days in a Friday-Saturday format beginning September 3 and closing on October 23. Retama had been allocated 30 days originally, although officials doubted that handle would be sufficient to run all those days at an average daily purse structure of $80,000 per day, which was the average in 2009 and is also the average for this fall’s 16 days. Purse revenue for 30 days this fall would have averaged $47,000 per day, Retama COO Bryan Brown stated in response to a question.
The second races in the Texas Stallion Stakes Series for foals of 2008 will highlight the September 25 night of racing, and the Selma track’s traditional meet features, the El Joven and the La Senorita, will top the closing program with each offering guaranteed purses of $75,000.
In other action, the TRC opened a racing dates application period from July 12 through August 18 for Texas tracks to apply for dates in 2011 and the first eight months of 2012. Commissioners Ron Ederer and Dr. Robert Schmidt were appointed to chair meetings of the TRC’s Race Dates Working Group, which plans to hold two meetings, on July 16 at Lone Star Park and August 13 at Sam Houston Race Park, to discuss potential horse race dates and solutions to stall the industry’s steady decline since 2000.
Drew Shubeck, president and general manager of Lone Star Park, reported that the ownership change from bankrupt Magna Entertainment Corporation to Global Gaming Solutions is on target to be considered by the TRC at the September 14 meeting.
TRC Chairman Rolando Pablos appointed four of his colleagues, Commissioners Gloria Hicks, Dr. Kent Carter, Ederer and Dr. Schmidt to a Committee to Study the Current State of Horse and Greyhound Racing and Breeding in Texas. The appointments came in response to a directive from Governor Rick Perry when he vetoed House Concurrent Resolution 252 after its passage by both chambers of the Texas Legislature in 2009. The HCR called for a Governor’s Task Force to be formed, but, in his veto, Perry directed TRC, in conjunction with private industry, to fulfill the intentions of the resolution. The TRC Study Committee is expected to meet in September.
The TRC tabled three items. They were the Austin Jockey Club’s application for a change of ownership and location for Longhorn Downs, as well as the allocation of purse revenue generated from simulcasting in calendar years 2011 and 2012 and the allocation of escrowed purse account revenue also for CY 2011-12.
The tabling of the latter two items came in response to a request from Rob Werstler, representing the Texas Quarter Horse Association, due to the possible closing of simulcast operations at Manor Downs in late July. Howard Phillips, Manor’s COO, told horsemen of the plans to close at the July 2 meeting of owners and trainers at Sam Houston Race Park. Phillips and Bryan Brown have been asked to present a plan to the TQHA by July 14 for a mixed meet in the spring of 2011 at a site to be determined. Once Manor’s status is resolved, the TRC will consider the two tabled items.
HOUSE COMMITTEE HEARS TESTIMONY ON WIDE RANGE OF GAMING OPTIONS
The Texas House Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committee, chaired by Edmund Kuempel (R-Seguin), met on July 8 and heard testimony on a wide range of gaming options from destination resort casinos to slot machines at racetracks to charitable bingo to Indian gaming. The usual opposition was also heard from the Christian Life Commission.
The hearing produced reams of press coverage as legislators try to identify new sources of revenue to address the state’s projected $18 billion shortfall in the budget for the next biennium. More than 20 House members were in attendance for part or all of the 6-hour hearing.
Harvey Kronberg, writing in his Quorum Report, addressed the legislative interest by stating in his posting on the hearing, “The most immediate change this time around is the absolute need for lawmakers to find a new source of revenue. It’s been noted before that when the state expanded gambling’s footprint in the past, it’s been as a reaction to contracting revenues. So it would seem that the current revenue bind could provide the necessary catalyst to getting a deal done.”
Texas Horse Organizations for Racing, Showing and Eventing (Texas HORSE) spokesmen were Jimmy Eller, both a TTA and TQHA member and operator of Granada Farm near Bryan-College Station, and former TTA executive director Jeff Hooper, who now holds a similar position with the National Cutting Horse Association.
As one veteran watcher of Capitol happenings recently observed, thanks to two major hearings, there has been more discussion of gaming in legislative confines within the past two weeks than in the last eight years combined.
Fast furlongs...Table games have become a part of the gaming mix at Pennsylvania casinos, but, unlike slots, there is no revenue stream to purses or the lucrative breed incentive program...Bankrupt New York City Off-Track Betting Corporation has hired a restructuring specialist, Greg Rayburn, as its new boss at a salary of $125,000 a month, which translates to $1.5 million per year, but the New York Post headline said “Try a termination specialist”...Johnny Sellers, who rode Jack and Katherine Price’s modestly-bred Carry Back, known as “the people’s choice,” to memorable come-from-behind Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes wins in 1961 died July 2 at 72...Turfway Park has cut three graded stakes from its Kentucky Cup Day program leaving only the Fall Championship (G3) to headline its biggest fall Saturday of racing, and will also drop four Wednesdays in order to maximize field size...Hollywood Park recently cancelled another race day due to lack of entries...Donnie Von Hemel, one of the leading trainers at Lone Star Park since the first meet in 1997, moved his stable to Arlington Park two years ago because of the higher purse levels, but he told Fort Worth Star-Telegram racing columnist Gary West that he’ll be thinking about relocating to Texas in 2011 if average daily purse levels are offered at $230,000 per day...Purse levels do make a difference.