Grand Contender could stretch out for Lone Star Park Handicap

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Grand Contender will be nominated to the Grade 3, $200,000 Lone Star Park Handicap following his win Saturday night in the track’s Texas Mile, but whether he starts in the second leg of the Global Gaming Triple hasn’t been determined, according to trainer Tom Amoss.

The Lone Star Park Handicap is at 1 1/16 miles, and to this point, Grand Contender has proven to be at his best at a mile. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 97 on Saturday, when he fought off Taptowne by a half-length in the Grade 3, $200,000 Texas Mile. Prior to that start, Grand Contender captured the $75,000 Borgata at a mile at Delta Downs, and last fall, he set a track record at the distance in the $150,000 Delta Mile.

“Grand Contender has shown us he’s a very capable middle-distance horse and that races at a mile are well suited to him,” Amoss said. “[Owner] Maggi Moss and I picked this spot out after his win at Delta Downs. We pointed toward the Texas Mile. With a horse like Grand Contender, we’d like to continue to pick out races that are at this mile distance, but they’re not that plentiful.”

Amoss said over the next few weeks, Moss would decide on a plan for Grand Contender. Factors to be debated include distance and whether to keep the horse in regional-type stakes or “try something really big,” Amoss said.

Amoss said Grand Contender, a half-brother to multiple Grade 2 winner Twilight Eclipse, arrived at Churchill Downs on Monday and appears to have emerged well from the Texas Mile.

“He dove into his feed,” he said.

The Lone Star Handicap on May 26 is the second leg of the Global Gaming Triple, which awards a $15,000 bonus to the owner and trainer of the horse who scores the most points while running in all three races in the series. It concludes with the Governor’s Cup, a race typically run at 1 1/8 miles each August at Remington Park. Global owns both Lone Star and Remington. The bonus has been hit in each of the two years it has been offered.