Pish going for the gravy on Stars of Texas Day

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Trainer Danny Pish has won with 12 of his last 28 starters at Lone Star Park, a hot streak that demands his runners on Stars of Texas Day here Saturday be given extra consideration. Pish will have starters in four of the six restricted stakes on the card. His contingent is led by Goosey Moose, who is seeking his third win in the $75,000 Assault.

Purses for the six stakes total $475,000. The program is an important one for Pish, who estimates that at least 70 percent of his stable is made up of Texas-breds.

"It's an opportunity to get some of the gravy," he said.

Goosey Moose will face seven others in the Assault, including defending champ Dreamsandvisions. Goosey Moose won the 1 1/16-mile race for Texas-breds in 2004 and 2005. He comes into this year's renewal off a fifth-place finish in an open-company turf allowance on June 15. One start earlier, Goosey Moose won an off-the-turf allowance for statebreds May 26. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 89, which is the field's highest last-race dirt Beyer Figure.

"He's been running good," said Pish. "His most recent start, he entered into some traffic trouble and never got the opportunity to run.

"I do feel like he's in good form and should be tough for this spot."

Goosey Moose will break from post 4 under Quincy Hamilton.

"I think he's happiest stalking the pace, stalking the horses, and then making a move somewhere around the five-sixteenths pole," said Pish. "That's his best race."

Pish will also send out Spoonerism, who in his last dirt start won a $125,000 division of the Texas Stallion Stakes on May 12. He won that 1 1/16-mile race by three lengths to earn a Beyer of 82.

"He makes that big run late," said Pish.

Skip and Go, a past Texas-bred horse of the year, was fourth to Goosey Moose in the statebred allowance, run on a muddy track. Before that, he was eighth over yielding turf in an allowance here May 12.

"I really thought the horse would like the wet track the other day, and he didn't get a hold of it," said Chris Hartman, who trains Skip and Go. "And then the turf race, he was only beaten four lengths. But the horse was just like a bobber on the ocean going around there. He couldn't get a hold of the track."

Hartman said he has been pleased with the works turned in by Skip and Go, who will be ridden by Glen Murphy.