Inaugural Lone Star Park Showcase consists of four stakes
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – The Lone Star Park Showcase card of four restricted stakes will have its first running Sunday and it drew a number of notable horses led by Direct Dial, the reigning Texas-bred of the Year.
He goes in the $50,000 Wayne Hanks Memorial on a program that also includes the $50,000 Lane’s End Danny Shifflett Scholarship Stakes and an inaugural pair of $65,000 divisions of the Texas Stallion Stakes for 2-year-olds. The races are worth a total of $230,000.
“This is a new grouping of stakes,” said Bart Lang, director of racing for Lone Star. “We found that there’s extra interest when you group the stakes together. We’ve always had Stars of Texas Day. We tried to do something similar.”
Lang said there will be an all-stakes pick four covering the races, and it will have a minimum guaranteed pool of $25,000. The sequence runs on races 6 through 9 and is a 50-cent minimum wager.
Direct Dial has long been targeted for the Wayne Hanks, a 6 1/2-furlong race for 3-year-olds and up bred in Texas.
“It’s the one obvious race for him at Lone Star,” said trainer Steve Asmussen. “We’re delighted we got to it in good shape.”
Direct Dial was named the Texas Thoroughbred Association’s Texas-bred of the Year in February following a 2018 season in which he completed a sweep of the Texas Stallion Stakes. This year Direct Dial has won the $50,000 Spirit of Texas for statebreds at six furlongs March 23 at Sam Houston and rallied for second, beaten a neck, in an open-company allowance at the same distance May 12 at Lone Star.
“I think the six and a half furlongs is good for him,” Asmussen said. “He’s won short. He’s won going long. He’s very versatile – and a very intelligent horse.”
Direct Dial is a four-time stakes winner by Too Much Bling. He races for his breeder, W.S. Farish.
Richard Eramia has the mount from post 2 in a field of eight that includes Supermason, a seven-time stakes winner moving back to dirt; A M Milky Way, a four-time stakes winner; and Rumpole, a three-time stakes winner making his first start since November.
Eramia and Asmussen will be teaming up again one race later with Good Judgment in the $65,000 Staunch Avenger division of the Texas Stallion Stakes. Good Judgment figures to be favored in the field of eight off a four-length debut win in a maiden special weight for Texas-breds on May 25 at Lone Star.
“He’s trained very impressively,” Asmussen said. “He’s been a very straightforward horse and he’s obviously got some ability. We’re anxious to see how he does.”
Good Judgment is a son of Too Much Bling and the mare Libbies Mission, who is a winning half-sister to Hallowed Dreams. Hallowed Dreams won the first 16 races of her career.
Good Judgment enters the Staunch Avenger with the field’s best Beyer Speed Figure, a 54, for a wire job in his debut. He will break from post 8.
“He started from the inside first time out and he’s got the far outside for his second start,” Asmussen said. “We’ll see if that works out.”
Asmussen trains Good Judgment for the partnership of Michael P. Lyons, Clark Brewster, and Montgomery Lair.
The chief threat appears to be Luckenbacher, a 6 1/2-length maiden special weight winner against Louisiana-breds on June 8 at Evangeline Downs. Diego Saenz is in to ride for trainer Beverly Burress.
The Pan Zareta division of the Texas Stallion Stakes drew five 2-year-old fillies, each of whom is looking for her first win. Favoritism could side with Dust a Flying for owners Wayne Sanders and Larry Hirsch and trainer Bret Calhoun.
Texas Belle returns to the Texas-bred ranks for the Lane’s End , which is a 7 1/2-furlong turf race for fillies and mares. The last time Texas Belle ran with statebreds she won the $50,000 San Jacinto at Sam Houston in March. She will break from post 4, with Rudy Guerra aboard for Richard P. Chandler and trainer Mindy Willis. Willis said Texas Belle will probably lay just off the pace early in the race.
Others set to start include multiple stakes winners Shes Our Fastest and Ima Discreet Lady.