Houston Ladies Classic purse gets major boost
Sam Houston Race Park has increased the purse of the Grade 3 Houston Ladies Classic to $400,000 from $300,000 and renamed the $200,000 Texas Turf Mile for the late racing executive Bob Bork, the track announced. The changes are the most significant to the $2.2 million stakes schedule for the meet that opens Jan. 6.
The Houston Ladies Classic - a 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares won this year by early Breeders’ Cup Distaff favorite Letruska - will anchor the Houston Racing Festival of six stakes worth more than $1 million on Jan. 30. The program includes the Grade 3, $200,000 John B. Connally Turf for 4-year-olds and up over 1 1/2 miles, and the Bob Bork Texas Turf Mile for 3-year-olds.
The Houston Ladies Classic and Connally will both be run Lasix-free in 2022.
Bork joined Sam Houston as its senior vice president and general manager in 1995 and was made the track’s president in 2002. He died in June at 83.
Texas Champions Day will be held March 26 at Sam Houston. There will be seven stakes for Texas-breds, and each will be worth $100,000.
Rated R Superstar points to Jeffrey Hawk
Rated R Superstar, who opened the Remington Park season with a win in the $175,000 Governor’s Cup, was scratched from a recent allowance due to a minor setback and could see action in the meet’s final stakes for his division, owner Danny Caldwell said.
Rated R Superstar is a candidate for the $100,000 Jeffrey Hawk Memorial on Nov. 19. The horse missed an intended start in an allowance Oct. 6.
“He had a little stone bruise,” Caldwell said. “We’ll point him toward the Jeffrey Hawk Memorial.”
Rated R Superstar has faced some top horses this year, running third to Knicks Go in the Cornhusker at Prairie Meadows and second to Silver State in the Essex at Oaklawn. He is trained by Federico Villafranco.
* Grade 1 winner No Parole breezed a half-mile in 49 seconds Saturday at Delta Downs. He was to have run that night in the track’s $100,000 Gold Cup, but the card was cancelled due to track-lighting issues. No Parole’s move was the third-fastest of 115 at the distance Saturday at Delta.
* There will be an emergency meeting of the Louisiana Racing Commission on Monday to consider a request by Delta Downs to conduct daytime racing on Fridays and Saturdays. The track races during the day on Wednesdays and Thursdays and will do so this Friday and Saturday.
* Laughingsaintssong, who won the Louisiana Champions Day Sprint in December 2019 at Fair Grounds, had his first published work since July on Saturday at Delta, going a half-mile in 50 seconds. “We gave him a little break for the summer, will get him ready for the Champions Day Sprint,” trainer Allen Landry said.
* Frank Hopf was recently promoted to assistant general manager of Sam Houston.
* Oaklawn stall applications are due Oct. 21. The 66-date meet opens Dec. 3.