Lone Star Handicap purse reduced to $200K

A reduction to the purse of the Grade 3 Lone Star Park Handicap and the renaming of an early season stakes for a late city official are the most notable changes to an 11-race, $1 million stakes schedule announced by Lone Star Park. The track also will incorporate night racing on Saturdays into its 50-date meet that opens April 10 and runs through July 12.

The Lone Star Park Handicap will have a purse of $200,000 after being worth $300,000. The 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds and up May 26 is the second of two graded stakes at the meet. The other is the Grade 3, $200,000 Texas Mile for 3-year-olds and up April 26. The purse reduction to the Lone Star will help keep purses at the projected average of $145,000 a day.

“We are very pleased to continue to offer an exciting stakes schedule in 2014 that ensures our overnight purse levels are maintained while continuing to offer our traditional graded stakes races,” Scott Wells, president and general manager of Lone Star, said in a press release.

The Lone Star and Texas Mile will again be tied to the $175,000 Governor’s Cup at sister track Remington Park in August as part of the Global Gaming Triple. The horse that accumulates the most points based on finishes in all three races will earn a $15,000 bonus to be split equally by his owner and trainer. Last year, the bonus was won by Prayer for Relief.

The $50,000 Wayne Hanks Memorial, named for a prominent official who died last fall, is a 6 1/2-furlong sprint for Texas-bred fillies and mares April 12. It’s the former JEH Stallion Station Stakes.

First post on Saturdays will be 6:35 p.m. Central. Stall applications are due Feb. 26.