Last season's stars help kick off 2019 Arapahoe meet

Galactic Princess and jockey Scott Stevens teamed to win three stakes races last season at Arapahoe Park and both are back to launch the track’s new season Saturday in the featured $30,000 Ingrid Knotts.

Arapahoe, located in Aurora, Colo., will race 39 days through Aug. 11. The mixed meet features Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses. Arapahoe will race every Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and has Friday cards on May 31, June 28, July 26, and Aug. 9.

The Ingrid Knotts, which is a six-furlong race for fillies and mares bred in Colorado, drew a field of 12. The stakes leads an eight-race opener that gets underway at 1 p.m. Mountain.

Stevens, who last week received the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award at Santa Anita, teamed with Galactic Princess in all of her Arapahoe starts in 2018. The pair won the Ingrid Knotts by four lengths, the $35,000 Spicy by a length, and the $30,000 Columbine by 12 3/4 lengths. Stevens also rode Galactic Princess to a third-place finish in the $30,000 Molly Brown.

:: MEMORIAL DAY SALE: Save 50% on Formulator PPs, DRF Plus access, and handicapping reports

Galactic Princess enters this year’s Ingrid Knotts off a neck win in an optional $12,500 claiming sprint May 3 at Sunland Park. She drew post 9 for owners Hilltop Stable and Eleanor Martin and trainer Ty Garrett Jr. Overall, Galactic Princess boasts a 7-for-13 record at Arapahoe. She also was a multiple stakes winner at the track in 2017, and for those victories was ridden by Stevens.

Fast Puff could start as second choice off an allowance win over some of these last summer at Arapahoe.

The stakes schedule also includes the $35,000 Gold Rush Futurity, a six-furlong race for 2-year-olds on Aug. 11. It will share a program with the $20,000 Arapahoe Park Classic for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/8 miles. The $20,000 Colorado Derby at 1 1/16 miles will be run July 14.

The richest offering of the season is expected to be the $100,000-estimated Mile High Futurity for Quarter Horses on July 26. The $90,000 Rocky Mountain Futurity for the same breed runs June 15.

In stakes action Sunday, the $20,000 Inaugural for 3-year-olds at six furlongs drew Collusionist, the winner of last year’s Silver Cup Futurity at Arapahoe who also finished second in the Gold Rush Futurity. Earlier this year, he ran eighth in the Grade 3 Sunland Derby.

Arapahoe’s maiden special weight races for Thoroughbreds will be worth $9,700 this meet, according to the condition book, while no-conditions allowances will have a purse of $14,500.