Fear the Cowboy finds himself in another tough spot

Fear the Cowboy has earned almost $1.2 million in his three starts this year – but he has yet to win a race. It’s a statistical oddity and one the multiple stakes winner will carry into Sunday’s running of the Grade 3, $200,000 Lone Star Park Handicap.

Fear the Cowboy has competed in some of his division’s richest offerings this year. The two-time Grade 3 winner opened his 6-year-old season with a fourth-place finish in the $16 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational on Jan. 27 at Gulfstream Park, earning $1 million. He then was third in the Grade 1, $600,000 Santa Anita Handicap on March 10 before heading to West Virginia and finishing third in the Grade 2, $1.2 million Charles Town Classic.

“We ran him in some tough races,” said trainer Efren Loza Jr. “We said now let’s try to go to a Grade 3 – and it looks like a Grade 1. There are some tough horses in the Lone Star Handicap. That’s the thing with horse racing – you never know what horses are in.”

Mubtaahij, a Grade 1 winner and the runner-up in the Santa Anita Handicap, is the 124-pound highweight for the Lone Star off a third-place finish in the Dubai World Cup. Full of Luck, who also is part of the five-horse Lone Star, was a Group 1 winner in his native Chile. The field is rounded out by millionaire Shotgun Kowboy and $1.8 million purchase South Beach.

Fear the Cowboy was beaten just 1 1/4 lengths last out in the Charles Town Classic, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 98. He will be shortening up in distance from 1 1/8 miles to 1 1/16 miles for the Lone Star, and the slight cutback should suit the horse, said Loza.

Loza also is hopeful that Fear the Cowboy will take to the main track at Lone Star. He said it will be the 16th track at which the horse has raced in his 30 starts. Fear the Cowboy has won nine times – with five of those victories coming in stakes – for earnings of $1.7 million. He races for Kathleen Amaya and Raffaele Centofanti.

“He’s a world traveler,” said Loza. “He’s a very intelligent horse, a very smart horse. He travels so well. He’s very relaxed. He’s handled the van, the airplane. He always takes care of himself. He’s very friendly with the people [who handle him during shipping]. He never gets stressed. He’s very calm. He’s one of the best travelers in the whole country.”

Loza said Fear the Cowboy is scheduled to arrive at Lone Star on Friday morning. He said the horse was shipped a training center in Ocala, Fla., to New Orleans for a few days, and from there will head to Lone Star, which is located between Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas.

Loza has his stable based in Ocala, but said in the middle of June or in early July he plans to send a small group of horses to Louisiana to race at Evangeline Downs and Louisiana Downs. Loza in the past has had a division of his stable in Louisiana.

Luis Negron rode Fear the Cowboy at Charles Town and has the mount at Lone Star.