Evangeline Downs: Louisiana Quarter Horse Breeders Association Futurity tops Quarter Horse meet

The $1 million-guaranteed Louisiana Quarter Horse Breeders Association Futurity will be the richest race ever run at Evangeline Downs in Opelousas, La., when it is held Nov. 17. The 400-yard sprint is the highlight of a 46-date meet for Quarter Horses that opens Wednesday night and continues through Dec. 20.

Trials for the LQHBA Breeders Futurity will be held Oct. 26. The race is for Louisiana-breds and is a Grade 1. It will share a card with two other stakes Nov. 17. Another top race during the season is the $100,000-added Evangeline Futurity. The 400-yard race is Dec. 15, with trials scheduled for Nov. 24. Last year, the Evangeline Futurity was worth $161,950. In all, there will be seven stakes run this meet at Evangeline.

Evangeline will race on a Wednesday-through-Saturday basis, with first post nightly 5:40 p.m. Central. The lone departure from that schedule will be Thanksgiving week, when Evangeline races on Tuesday, Nov. 20, and is dark on Thursday, Nov. 22.

Wednesday’s opening card is led by an 870-yard allowance. The first stakes of the season is Saturday night, with the running of the $30,000 Don Cravins, a 400-yard sprint for 3-year-olds and up bred in Louisiana.

Evangeline is home to a slots casino, and $200,000 in slots revenue is going into the LQHBA Breeders’ Futurity. The race is being run the same night as the Delta Downs Jackpot, a $1 million race for Thoroughbreds at neighboring Delta Downs in Vinton, La. Boyd Gaming, which owns Delta, announced an agreement to purchase Evangeline earlier this year.