Rich stakes help kick off anniversary season
Sam Houston Race Park launches its 25th anniversary season Friday night with its richest program two days later. The Houston Racing Festival of six stakes worth a total of $725,000 goes Sunday, with Midnight Bisou on deck for the Grade 3, $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic.
The new meet also will feature a jackpot pick six wager and a new announcer, Chris Griffin. The 32-date season runs through March 30.
Sam Houston became the first Class 1 track in Texas to open after a 50-year parimutuel shut-down in the state when it launched a Thoroughbred meet on April 29, 1994. The track plans to celebrate its anniversary throughout the season, said Frank Hopf, senior director of racing operations for Sam Houston.
“You’ll notice the number 25 being used on things we’re doing,” he said, adding there will be a $25,000 cash giveaway on Sunday.
The Grade 3, $200,000 John B. Connally Turf also is being run on Sunday. The 1 1/2-mile race drew two-time defending winner Bigger Picture.
First post for the lone Sunday card of the meet is 1 p.m. Central.
“We’ll have six stakes races, four of them being on the turf,” Hopf said. “The other thing that we’ve done on this day is in honor of Bob McNair. We renamed the Sam Houston Sprint Cup the Stonerside Sprint in honor of Mr. McNair and his support of racing nationwide and in Houston.”
McNair, who raced under the name Stonerside Stable, was a breeder and owner who owned the NFL franchise the Houston Texans. He died in November.
Sam Houston’s jackpot wager, the Space City Pick Six, will run on the final six races each program. It’s a 20-cent minimum bet and it will have a 12 percent takeout, just like all multi-race wagers at Sam Houston.
“It will have a little bit of a twist,” Hopf said of the new bet. “The biggest difference is a 75 percent payout of the minor pool and a 25 percent payout of the major pool, or carryover, so it’s a little more friendly to the wagering public in a payout sense.”
In other changes to the wagering format, the minimum on pick three wagers has been increased from 50 cents to $1.
Sam Houston’s purses are projected to average $140,000 per program, the same as last year, said Hopf. To maintain that average in a Texas market that does not allow off-track betting parlors, advance-deposit wagering, or gaming, the track made some changes to its $1.1 million stakes schedule. The purse for the Houston Ladies Classic was reduced from $400,000 and it discontinued the $100,000 Maxxam Gold Cup.
In other changes, the annual Texas Champions program of six stakes will be run on one card instead of two, and it has been moved later on the calendar, to March 23.
Sam Houston’s stable area has again drawn divisions of horses from trainers Steve Asmussen, Karl Broberg and Bret Calhoun. There also is an influx of new barns, including trainers Ray Ashford Jr., Danele Durham, Henry Guillory Jr., Kenneth Marshall, and Eduardo Ramirez.
Hopf said Sam Houston received requests for 1,600 stalls, up 300 from last season. The track can house 1,150 horses.
Sam Houston will race Fridays and Saturdays, adding Wednesday afternoon cards starting Feb. 6 and Tuesday afternoon cards starting March 12.