Sam Houston: Hamilton out with bang

Quincy Hamilton, the leading apprentice at Sam Houston, made his last weekend at the track count when he won two races Thursday and had double-digit winners Friday and Saturday. He was scheduled to leave for Laurel in Maryland on Sunday.

"I want to get established up there," said Hamilton."I want to win the Eclipse Award, just like everybody else."

Maryland has been a base for a number of Eclipse Award-winning apprentices, including Kent Desormeaux and Chris McCarron.

Hamilton is the 20-year-old son of John Hamilton, a successful Quarter Horse rider in Texas. Quincy Hamilton won his first career race Nov. 6, at Sam Houston.

His fiancee, Christy Burress, will join him in Maryland. Burress, 20, is an aspiring jockey who plans to launch her career in Maryland.

"We decided we wanted to go and decided this is the time," said Hamilton.

Hamilton credited Shawn Bergquist, his agent at Sam Houston, for helping his career get off to a fast start.

"He got me in with the people I needed to be in with," said Hamilton.

* Norm Morrison, who was a state steward in Texas for about 10 years, died Sunday in Breckenridge, Texas. He was 67. Morrison, who had been battling cancer, was buried on Wednesday.

* The Texas Thoroughbred Association will be putting statebred stakes funds from the canceled $75,000 Martanza into the remaining Texas-bred stakes at Sam Houston. The policy will increase the purse for a number of statebred stakes from $30,000 to $40,000.

* Terry Stanton has been named the first Coca-Cola jockey of the week at Sam Houston.