Durham sends out contenders in two stakes
Hall’s Family Trust and trainer Danele Durham will be attacking the Texas Champions Weekend stakes at Sam Houston Race Park starting Friday night. There are three stakes on the card, and the owner-trainer team has top contenders in the $50,000 Yellow Rose and the $50,000 Bara Lass. In between those races is the $50,000 San Jacinto.
Sam Houston’s weekend of Texas-bred stakes continues Saturday night, and Hall’s Family Trust and Durham will have Texas Bling in the main event, the Star of Texas.
But until then, Texas Bling’s younger sister Everything Bling will try to get the barn on the board in the Yellow Rose. The six-furlong race drew six fillies and mares, including multiple stakes winner Lasting Bubbles. Everything Bling was second to Lasting Bubbles last year in the $50,000 Valor Farm at Lone Star Park.
“Lasting Bubbles is a very classy mare,” Durham said. “We faced her last year as a 3-year-old, were just narrowly defeated, and are looking forward to a rematch.”
Everything Bling enters the Yellow Rose in top form, having won a second-level allowance Nov. 7 at Remington Park. She led throughout for a head win, and both the second- and third-place finishers from the race returned to win their next race.
“There were some real nice fillies in that race, and she really came into it ready to run,” said Durham.
Everything Bling, a daughter of Too Much Bling, will break from post 2 under Glenn Corbett.
“It seems like a lot of my Blings really like to hover close and make that one big kick at the end, and I imagine we’ll try to do that again this time,” said Durham.
Too Much Prada, who also is a daughter of Too Much Bling, is seeking to rebound from her first loss in the Bara Lass, a six-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies. She won her debut in a maiden special weight at Lone Star Park in May, then captured the $75,000 fillies division of the Texas Stallion Stakes at Retama Park in September before losing at Remington. Too Much Prada finished ninth in the $50,000 E.L. Gaylord on Oct. 23. The winner of that race, My Master Plan, returned in her next start to capture the $100,000 Trapeze at Remington.
“It was a very good crowd of fillies, and the race didn’t unfold exactly like we wanted,” Durham said. “She went right for the lead, really exhausted herself. The pace was just wicked.”
Too Much Prada has trained forwardly for the Bara Lass.
“She came back excellent and has been training fabulously,” Durham said. “I’m looking for her to run a big race this weekend.”
Durham’s horses shipped Wednesday morning from Oaklawn.
◗ Expect Royalty is out to defend her title in the San Jacinto, a 1 1/16-mile turf race for fillies and mares. Iram Diego has the mount for breeder, owner, and trainer Leroy Pollok.