Maturity trials kick off Hialeah meet
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
Four trials for 3-year-olds seeking berths in next month’s $100,000 Hialeah Maturity and a $25,000 stakes highlight Saturday’s opening-day program for Quarter Horses at Hialeah Park.
The seventh season of Quarter Horse racing at Hialeah, which opened in 1925 but ran its last Thoroughbred race in 2001, will feature 40 days of live racing on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays, plus a special Tuesday card next week. First post is 12:35 p.m. Eastern.
Hialeah will run 24 stakes, four fewer than last season. The two biggest days of the season are Sunday, Jan. 17, with four stakes topped by the $200,000 Hialeah Derby and the $100,000 Hialeah Maturity for 4-year-olds, and the next-to-last day of the meet on Sunday, Feb. 28, with a six-stakes card highlighted by the $100,000 South Florida Quarter Horse Derby and the $100,000 Sam Abbey Invitational.
Saturday’s Maturity trials at 440 yards, the first four races on a nine-race program, are led by Moonin the Eagle in race 4. He won last season’s $200,000 South Florida Derby and was second in the $417,000 Hialeah Derby. Most recently, Moonin the Eagle finished second while facing older horses in the Grade 1 Refrigerator Handicap at Lone Star Park.
Other top runners in the trials include Mavara Vegas (race 1), a two-time stakes winner at Indiana Grand; Political Debut (race 2), the winner of the Will Rogers Derby Challenge and the runner-up in the Grade 3 American Quarter Horse Association Derby Challenge at Lone Star; Premier Ethics (race 3), the winner of the Grade 2 Junos Request at Remington Park; and Tf Cajun Cartel (race 3), the runner-up in the $194,000 Dash for Cash Derby at Lone Star.
In Saturday’s eighth race, older horses will contest the Bienvenido De Nuevo at 330 yards. The nine-horse field is led by Daytona B, a 4-year-old who won three times at last season’s Hialeah meet, including the Sam Abbey. In his only start since last April, Daytona B won the Grade 1, $353,500 AQHA Challenge Championship at Sam Houston in early November.
“He should be ready for a good race," said trainer Rolando Almanza. "His owner thought maybe we could run in some races at Sunland Park, but the horse was already in Florida. He really likes it here anyway and he won the Sam Abbey Memorial last meet.”
The first three days of the meet also include trials for the Hialeah Derby on Sunday and trials for the $50,000 Florida Quarter Horse Racing Association Stallion Stakes on Monday.