Expect Royalty brings stakes credentials in Lane's End Stallion Scholarship
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Expect Royalty and I Am Jane Dough will be charged with running down Lasting Bubbles in the $50,000 Lane’s End Stallion Scholarship Stakes on Saturday night at Lone Star Park. The 7 1/2-furlong turf race for fillies and mares bred in Texas has brought together a competitive field of 12.
Expect Royalty, I Am Jane Dough, and Lasting Bubbles all figure to get good support as each has accounted for a stakes win in recent times. Other stakes winners making up the field are Platinum Song and Infectious.
The Lane’s End coincides with the annual awards banquet of the Texas Thoroughbred Association, which will be held Saturday night at Lone Star. During the banquet, the champion statebreds of 2014 will be honored, while lifetime achievement awards will go to Nat Kieffer and the late Jim Jackson and Bill McMorris Sr.
KEY CONTENDERS
Expect Royalty (Last 3 Beyers: 87-80-81)
◗ She returned from a three-month layoff last out and won a turf allowance over open company May 2 at Lone Star. The score followed a winter season in which she captured the $50,000 Fiesta Mile in October at Retama Park and the $50,000 San Jacinto in January at Sam Houston.
◗ Expect Royalty might get a stalking trip from the rail, behind Lasting Bubbles as well as Best Bling and Platinum Song.
◗ Expect Royalty will be looking for her eighth career win from 15 starts.
◗ Iram Diego has the mount on the Valid Expectations mare for breeder, owner, and trainer Leroy Pollok.
I Am Jane Dough (Last 3 Beyers: 82-80-67)
◗ She is making her first start since Jan. 31, when she won the $50,000 Tomball Stakes at Sam Houston Race Park. Since the start, two horses she defeated returned to win in their next outs, including Expect Royalty in the allowance at Lone Star.
◗ I Am Jane Dough is a closer who would benefit if the pace is quick Saturday.
◗ I Am Jane Dough races for her breeder, Rose Mary Chandler, and is a half-sister to past Texas-bred horse of the year Skip a Smile.
◗ Quincy Hamilton has the mount for trainer Danny Pish.
Lasting Bubbles (Last 3 Beyers: 77-88-78)
◗ Winner of the $50,000 Wayne Hanks Memorial Stakes on April 11 at Lone Star, the seven-time stakes winner is making a rare two-turn start Saturday.
◗ Lasting Bubbles will be stretching out from five furlongs on turf, having run second by a half-length in a $15,000 starter allowance against open company June 7 at Lone Star.