Mayfield has new gun in Expectant Diva

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Same race, same trainer - different horse.

Randy Mayfield has won two of the last three runnings of the $50,000 JEH Stallion Station Stakes with Coastalota, but with his former stable star now retired, he will have a new JEH shooter at Lone Star Park on Saturday.

Expectant Diva will start as one of the favorites in the 6 1/2-furlong race for Texas-bred fillies and mares. In her last start, she rallied for a neck win in a six-furlong allowance here, covering the distance in a sharp 1:10.60.

"She ran so good the other day," said Mayfield. "She's improving a whole lot."

raced closer to the pace than usual in the allowance, when she stalked the leaders and closed with a rush in the stretch. The JEH will be her second stakes start. In her stakes debut two races back, Expectant Diva finished fourth to multiple stakes winner Native Annie in the $40,000 Double Your Flavor at Sam Houston Race Park.

"I thought she should have run second there in Houston," said Mayfield. "She got in a lot of trouble and had to go real wide. She still ran a good race."

Mayfield said Jamie Theriot, who rode Expectant Diva in the Lone Star allowance April 21, has the mount on Saturday. Expectant Diva is a 4-year-old daughter of Valid Expectations, and she races for her breeder, Virginia Jago Elder.

Other contenders in the race include Rhome Magic, winner of an allowance in her last start, and Hay Madison, who won a conditioned claiming race in her last start. Both fillies are trained by Cole Norman.

* Hubert Southard, who raced Coastalota, said the mare is scheduled to be bred to Authenticate, a son of Gone West and multiple Grade 1 winner Lakeway who stands in Texas. Coastalota retired last fall, and was a seven-time stakes winner of $379,498.

"She has a full 2-year-old sister who looks like she might do something," said Southard, who has the filly in training at Lone Star with Mayfield.