Illegal Memories returns in stakes

Illegal Memories, a multiple Grade 1-winning Quarter Horse, will make his first start in two months Friday night in the $50,000 Ancira Ford Classic at Sam Houston Race Park. The 400-yard race is one of four stakes on the card, all restricted to Quarter Horses bred in Texas. Purses for the races total $165,000.

Illegal Memories has not seen action since May 30, when he finished an uncharacteristic ninth in the Grade 1 Remington Park Invitational. Prior to that race, he won the Grade 1 Oklahoma Challenge Championship. G.R. Carter Jr. has the mount on Illegal Memories for trainer Heath Taylor.

Others in the field include Easy Dashin Sixes, winner of the Grade 1 Texas Challenge Championship at Sam Houston on July 11.

The stakes Friday night are part of the Texas Summer Showdown weekend at Sam Houston. Other activities making up the event include the 11th annual Texas Quarter Horse Association yearling auction, on both Friday and Saturday. There are some 380 horses cataloged to the sale, with sessions beginning daily at 11 a.m.

"On paper, this is one of the best catalogs we've ever put out," said Rob Werstler, executive director of the TQHA.

The catalog is also bigger than last year, when there were about 300 horses in the auction.

The Summer Showdown weekend also includes three stakes Saturday night, led by the $408,730 TQHA Sale Futurity. It is a restricted Grade 1 for graduates of last year's TQHA yearling auction at Sam Houston.