Milligan barn has big plans

Trainer Allen Milligan is on the move. He won the first graded race of his career last week at Lone Star Park with Texas Air. He has Haveyougoneaway on deck for an opening-weekend stakes at Ruidoso Downs. And he’s looking at sending a small division of horses to Del Mar.

Milligan, 48, took down the co-richest race of the Lone Star meet last Friday night when Texas Air closed from off the pace to win the Grade 3, $200,000 Texas Mile. The horse will be pointed for a sweep of the meet’s biggest prizes later this month in the Grade 3, $200,000 Lone Star Park Handicap.

“He’s doing super,” Milligan said Wednesday. “We’re running back in the Lone Star Handicap. We’ll see how he runs and go from there.”

Milligan said Texas Air, a Texas-bred who races for his breeder, Paul J. Rigali Jr., said the horse’s campaign has options like the $50,000 Assault for statebreds July 11 at Lone Star and the $175,000 Governor’s Cup in August at Remington Park.

Texas Air is on top of his game right now. He won an optional $45,000 claimer over a handful of stakes winners March 26 at Oaklawn, one start before taking the Texas Mile.

“The horse that ran second in the allowance at Oaklawn, Rivers Run Deep, came back to win an Ohio-bred stakes,” Milligan said.

In the Texas Mile, Texas Air rallied through the stretch for a three-quarter-length win and earned a 94 Beyer Speed Figure.

“I liked the confidence he showed,” Milligan said. “He’s starting to learn how to rate. It’s not like it happened overnight. It’s been a process. His last few races, he’s dropped his head out of the gate, relaxed, and has come through when he’s needed to come through. He’s more confident coming from out of it.”

Milligan said Quincy Hamilton, who was aboard for the Texas Mile, has the mount in the Lone Star Park Handicap, a 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds and up May 25.

Haveyougoneaway will be in action the same day at Ruidoso in the $50,000 First Lady Handicap for fillies and mares at six furlongs, said Milligan. She will come into the race off a third-place finish in the $100,000 Spring Fever at Oaklawn. Earlier in the meet, she won an allowance and ran third in the $100,000 American Beauty.

“That filly is doing awfully good,” said Milligan, who trains Haveyougoneaway for Champion Racing Stable.

Milligan is stabled at Lone Star and said that after the meet ends, he anticipates racing at Remington Park and sending a 10-horse division to Southern California for Del Mar. It will be the first time Milligan has had horses stabled at Del Mar.

“They’ve got purse incentives for us shipping out there,” he said of the “Ship and Win” program that debuted a few years back at Del Mar.

Until then, Milligan will be focused on Lone Star. He had a double at the track Sunday and will be represented in the first race Friday night with the stakes winner Be My Caroline. She goes in a second-level allowance for fillies and mares at six furlongs, with the chief threat Afoolsbrokenheart.

Be My Caroline, who races for her breeders, Sanders Brothers, won the $75,000 Rainbow Miss for 3-year-old fillies bred in Arkansas on March 28 at Oaklawn. She set the pace and fought for a nose win, one start after winning a maiden special weight the same way Feb. 8.

“She’s a hard tryer, got a lot of heart,” Milligan said. “When they come to her, she’s just determined.”

Be My Caroline, to be ridden by Hamilton, is a full sister to six-time stakes winner All About Allie.