Sam Houston Race Park opens a 41-date meet Friday night with its Houston Racing Festival card right around the corner. The Grade 3, $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic and the $200,000 John B. Connally Turf Cup will again anchor the meet’s richest day when the races are renewed Jan. 24. Sam Houston races through April 4. The track will race on a Friday-through-Sunday schedule, with a 6:30 p.m. Central post on Fridays and a 1 p.m. post on Saturdays and Sundays. Sam Houston’s simulcast signal will again be limited to other tracks in Texas and international sites due to an ongoing impasse between the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority and the Texas Racing Commission, but there have been ongoing talks between several parties, according to Bryan Pettigrew, vice president and general manager of Texas racing operations for Penn Entertainment. “We’re hopeful that something will change and that the Texas Racing Commission would collaborate and talk to HISA and figure out a way for Texas to export our races, ideally before the Houston Racing Festival,” Pettigrew said. The Houston Ladies Classic is again for fillies and mares, 4 years old and up, over 1 1/16 miles. The Connally will be for 4-year-olds and up at 1 1/2 miles on the grass. The races will share a card with the $100,000 Bob Bork Texas Turf Mile for 3-year-olds and a pair of Texas Stallion Stakes. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Other highlights of the stakes schedule include Texas Preview Day on Feb. 14 and Texas Champions Day on March 21. “Those are kind of our three signature days,” Pettigrew said. Purses for the meet are projected to average $183,000 per card, he said. The track’s stable area includes a division for Steve Asmussen, who is North America’s all-time leading trainer by wins with more than 11,000. “We’re going to hit the ground running,” Asmussen said. “Sam Houston’s my favorite surface in the country. The main track is the best surface to train on in the country.” Some of the new stables in town include Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Eric Reed. Jockey Lane Luzzi, who has been riding in New York, is wintering at Sam Houston, while Stewart Elliott, Deshawn Parker, and David Cabrera are other noted riders settled in at Houston. On the wagering front, Pettigrew said the track is introducing a new $3 turf pick three with a reduced takeout of 12 percent. The plan is to offer the wager daily. The track’s daily double, pick three, pick four, and pick five wagers will again have a reduced takeout of 12 percent. In a policy change, Sam Houston will go cashless for operations other than betting. “All major sporting events in Houston, and facilities, have become cashless, and we’re also going to do the same with admission and restaurants and concessions being cashless,” Pettigrew said. “Still have to have cash to bet, but everything else is a QR code, or you can buy in advance on the tickets and show it on your phone. We will take Apple Pay and debit cards at the cash registers and the restaurants. “We’re trying to modernize our operation and take away one less element of cash that will help our operations at the end of the night when we’re reconciling – but hopefully also push more folks to the betting windows. They’ll have more money to bet with on a given night, so we hope to see kind of a return on it on that side of it, too.” On the track, Sam Houston will be replacing its turf rail with a newer-model turf safety rail that is scheduled to debut the second week of racing, Pettigrew said. In other changes, announcer Nick Tammaro has taken on the additional role of player development manager for Sam Houston. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.