El Joven, La Senorita stakes moved to a Tuesday

Retama Park near San Antonio has a new format for its meet that opens July 6, but the El Joven and La Senorita for 2-year-olds on turf will again highlight the stakes schedule. Retama is putting on a mixed meet this year and will largely feature Quarter Horses on Fridays and Saturdays and Thoroughbreds on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The season runs through Sept. 5.

The first Thoroughbred races will be held at the end of July, following the close of Lone Star Park near Dallas. There will be six stakes for Thoroughbreds at Retama, with the $75,000 El Joven and the $75,000 La Senorita, for fillies, set for Sept. 4. It will be the first Tuesday placement of the one-mile races, which had been run on a Saturday. In another schedule change, both $65,000 divisions of the Texas Stallion Stakes for 2-year-olds at six furlongs will be run Wednesday, Aug. 15.

The $50,000 Texas Hall of Fame Stakes and the $50,000 Fiesta Mile, both for Texas-breds, will maintain their Saturday placement when renewed Aug. 4, as the turf routes have long complemented the induction ceremony for the Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame. Those to be inducted this year include Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher.

The meet’s richest stakes for Quarter Horses include the TQHA Sales Futurity and the Retama Park Derby, both July 28.