Amended stakes schedule, racing dates announced

Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, on Thursday announced an amended stakes schedule featuring 18 races worth $1.4 million. The track also announced an amended racing schedule of 36 dates through Aug. 2. The season started May 22.

Lone Star had to delay the opening of its meet about five weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic. It had been set for 44 dates.

There are four stakes days. Texas Champions Day, a program of seven stakes for statebreds, will be held June 14. The event is annually held at Sam Houston, but was canceled this year due to a blown transformer prior to the start of the stakes portion of the program March 21.

Each of the divisional stakes will be worth $75,000.

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The second stakes program is June 28. There are three open-company stakes, each worth $75,000. The Lone Star Park Turf Stakes is for fillies and mares at a mile, the Grand Prairie Stakes is for 3-year-olds at a mile and a sixteenth, and the Lone Star Mile is for 4-year-olds and up.

The Stars of Texas Preview Day on July 5 features four restricted stakes, each worth $75,000: the Wayne Hanks Memorial, Lane’s End Danny Shifflett Scholarship Stakes, and divisions of the Texas Stallion Stakes.

The final stakes program July 26 is Stars of Texas Day. The Valor Farm and Highlander Training Center Assault Stakes for Texas-breds are both worth $75,000, while there are a pair of $100,000 divisions of the Texas Thoroughbred Futurity.

“We have worked closely with the Texas Horsemen’s Partnership and the Texas Thoroughbred Association to put together a schedule that benefits everyone, especially our horsemen,” Kent Slabotsky, vice president of operations at Lone Star, said in a release.

Lone Star will race Monday through Wednesday in June and July with a first post of 1:35 p.m. Central. The stakes dates are Sunday programs, and start at 3:05 p.m. There are also Saturday cards June 27 and Aug. 1.

The amended calendar was approved Tuesday by the Texas Racing Commission.

There are currently no spectators allowed for racing at Lone Star.