Hoosier track report

Last weekend's stakes action at Hoosier Park provided memorable performances and a good preview of the weeks ahead with four Indiana-bred stakes offered along with the Indiana Derby and Indiana Oaks.

On Friday night, Ellens Lucky Star won the Richmond Stakes for Indiana-bred fillies and mares for the third straight year. The victory was also the first of the year for Ellens Lucky Star, who carries a career mark of 6-2-2 from 10 starts at Hoosier with earnings of more than $143,000. Trained by Greg Foley, Ellens Lucky Star was coming off a third against "other-than" allowance company, which was her first start at the track this year.

Two-year-olds Lil Broad Tee and Father Art both remained undefeated and became stakes winners in their second career starts.

Lil Broad Tee, trained by Lynn Whiting, found her way through a field of 11 other Indiana-bred fillies and rallied for a nose victory in the City of Anderson Stakes on Friday night. The win followed her 3 3/4-length win in her career debut on opening night, Sept. 3. Rodney Prescott was aboard for both starts.

Father Art was an impressive winner in his career debut, defeating a field of statebred maiden 2-year-olds by 16 lengths Sept. 24. He returned on seven days' rest to take the Hillsdale by 1 3/4 lengths Saturday. Tommy Pompell was aboard for trainer Mike Nance.

Pass Rush is among the leading Indiana-breds in career earnings, with over $541,000, and was making just his fourth start over the track in the Gus Grissom on Saturday night. Sent off the 3-5 favorite for trainer David Vance, Pass Rush edged away confidently for a 1 1/4-length win and his first victory since 2003.

* This week's purse increase of approximately 10 percent is fueled by strong gains in the track's sale of its nighttime simulcast signal across the country. The sale of Hoosier's live signal is up about 27 percent this year, with a nightly average of $1.48 million this year compared with $1.08 million last year. Ontrack attendance is up 17 percent, at 1,473 this year compared with 1,237 last year. Ontrack handle is up 7 percent, averaging $62,439 compared with $58,275 last year. Through 22 days of racing this year, the combined live ontrack and offtrack handle has not gone below the $1 million mark and eclipsed the $2 million mark on both the Indiana Derby and Indiana Oaks cards.