Retama Park mixed meet opens with a bang

Retama Park near San Antonio will open with a bang Thursday night. Literally.

“We’ll have a fireworks show after the races,” said racing secretary James Leatherman.

Retama on Thursday launches a 28-date mixed meet for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses. It runs through Sept. 11. The meet is three dates longer than last season, while overnight purses have seen increases from 2018. The track also has made adjustments to some post times and stakes dates.

The $50,000 Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame Stakes and the $50,000 Fiesta Mile will be run on a Friday night, Sept. 6, rather than a Saturday. The turf routes for 3-year-olds and up bred in Texas annually complement a trackside gala for inductions into the track’s Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame.

Alysheba, the 1987 Kentucky Derby winner and 1988 Horse of the Year raced by Dorothy and Pam Scharbauer, headlines the 2019 class. Others to be inducted during the 20th anniversary of the Hall are Streakin Six, John Adger, Keith and Marilyn Asmussen, Johnny Cox, Ted Keefer, and Bob and Janice McNair.

Retama’s stakes schedule also includes the La Senorita and El Joven, a pair of $75,000 turf routes for 2-year-olds on Aug. 14. The races are being run earlier this year, said Leatherman, to place them several weeks apart from similar stakes at Louisiana Downs. Those races, the Happy Ticket and Sunday Silence, were moved this year to Sept. 7.

The highlight of the Quarter Horse stakes schedule is the TQHA Sales Futurity on July 27. Last year, the race was worth more than $400,000, said Leatherman.

Leatherman said overnight purses for both Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses have been increased for the meet, with Thoroughbred races up $1,000 each over 2018. The change makes maiden special weights for Thoroughbreds worth $18,000 and brings average daily purses this meet to a projected $125,000.

Retama will race 14 cards for Thoroughbreds and 14 for Quarter Horses. The Quarter Horse programs will be held most Friday and Saturday nights, with a first post of 6:45 p.m. Central. The exceptions include four weekends when there is racing at Gillespie County Fair, which opens July 6.

The cards for Thoroughbreds will be every Tuesday and Wednesday night, starting July 30 to avoid overlap with the Lone Star Park meet, which ends July 21. First post for Thoroughbred racing will be 45 minutes later than last year, at 7:30 p.m. Central.

“We’re trying to gain every simulcast dollar we can on the West Coast,” said Leatherman.

Thursday’s holiday card of 10 races for Quarter Horses starts at 5 p.m. Central to accommodate the fireworks show.