Hall, Durham make splash with Fasig-Tipton buys

Lewis Hall and his Lone Star Park-based trainer, Danele Durham, hit the Fasig-Tipton July auction on Thursday in a significant way, taking home seven promising yearlings who are expected to debut next summer in Texas.

Hall’s top purchases included a Malibu Moon colt for $195,000 and a Curlin colt for $120,000. He also took home colts by Colonel John, Gio Ponti, and Astrology as well as a filly by Midshipman. The purchases were to augment Hall’s local breeding program, which has produced such horses as the multiple stakes winner Texas Bling.

“He’s just trying to kick it up a notch and just trying to bring a little fresh blood into our program,” Durham said. “We’ve had a lot of fun on the circuit we do, which is Lone Star, Oaklawn, and Remington.”

Durham said the long-range hope is that the colts develop into candidates for the rich 3-year-old program at Oaklawn that includes the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby. But first, she said, the new yearlings are heading to Hall’s farm in Aledo, Texas.

“We’ll let them be horses for a month, and then they’ll be broken there at the farm,” said Durham.

Not long after the group turns 2, they will head to Retama Park near San Antonio, which operates as a training center in the winter. Durham will receive the horses there the first part of January. The group will then head to Lone Star in March with the intent of starting their careers at the Grand Prairie, Texas, track.

“Mr. Hall definitely likes to see them run in Texas in front of family and friends,” said Durham.

The Malibu Moon colt who brought $195,000 is out of the multiple stakes-winning mare Awesome Lady. He is a half-brother to the stakes winner Sensible Lady, an earner of $435,180.

“He’s a horse that looks like he’ll get a little route of ground,” Durham said. “He has good muscle, a good hip on him, and at the same time has got a body that wants to get a little bit of distance. And he’s bred that way.”

Hall’s new purchases will join a yearling crop of homebreds that includes a full sister to Texas Bling, who was scheduled to run Saturday night in the Assault Stakes at Lone Star. Earlier in his career, Texas Bling accounted for the Springboard Mile at Remington Park.

“We have a very nice, nice crop of Texas-breds at the farm,” Durham said. “We really wanted some horses to run in open company here at Lone Star, and that would continue on to Remington, and the ultimate destination, to be very competitive in Hot Springs and see where that takes us.”

As for the immediate future, Hall, who races as Hall’s Family Trust, will be in action Sunday at Lone Star with some of his 2-year-olds. He has starters in the third and fifth races, both maiden special weights for fillies. Couture Appeal is a Closing Argument filly in the third, while Hall’s representative in the fifth race is Super Romance, a daughter of Super Saver.

Jensen back for Rainbow Derby

Cody Jensen, a leading Quarter Horse jockey who five weeks ago broke six ribs and fractured a vertebra, told Ruidoso Downs officials that he plans to return to the saddle for the Grade 1, $1 million Rainbow Derby on July 18. He also plans to be in action in the Grade 1, $1 million Rainbow Futurity on July 19. His mounts were still being determined as of Friday. Entries for the races will be taken Saturday and Sunday.

“You can’t win the Rainbow unless you ride in the Rainbow,” said Jensen, a three-time winner of the Rainbow Derby.

Jensen was injured in a starting-gate incident during morning training hours. He worked two horses Friday at Ruidoso.

Lone Star moves into its final week of the meet Thursday, with the season to wrap July 19.