Lone Star: $1 million Texas Futurity highlights Quarter Horse meet

Lone Star Park will again put on the richest race in Texas during its annual Quarter Horse meet that opens on Friday night. The Dallas area track is the home of the $1 million Texas Classic Futurity, a 400-yard race to be run on the closing program Nov. 9.

Lone Star will race 26 dates, on a Thursday through Saturday night basis. First post will be 6:35 p.m. Central. The meet will be the first under the direction of Scott Wells, the president and general manager of Remington Park in Oklahoma City who was recently named to the same capacity at Lone Star, which like Remington is owned by Global Gaming Solutions.

The Texas Classic is one of four Grade 1 races for Quarter Horses at Lone Star. Trials for the race will be run on Oct. 19. The first Grade 1 of the season is the $75,000 Refrigerator Handicap, a 440-yard race for 3-year-olds and up Sept. 28. The Grade 1 action will continue with the $450,000 Dash for Cash Futurity on Oct. 5 and the $400,000 Texas Classic Derby on Nov. 9.

“I think we’re going to have a strong meet,” said Bart Lang, director of racing for Lone Star. “We’ve got all the horsemen back from last year.”
Among the stables returning are trainers Trey Wood and Judd Kearl, who finished one-two in the standings a year ago. Ricky Ramirez, who won the riding title, is also back for the new season, said Lang.

Lang said purses are projected to average $130,000 a day.

Since last year’s meet, Lone Star has resurfaced its main track and added material, an improvement made before the start of the Thoroughbred meet in April.