Sam Houston track report

Turf racing in December. It's nice if you can get it, and when trainers come across it, they tend to flood the entry box. Such is the case at Sam Houston Race Park in Houston, Texas, for Saturday night's $40,000 Katy, which drew a full field of 12 fillies and mares, led by Grade 2 winner Fun House.

The 1 1/16-mile turf race figures to produce starters for the $60,000 Furl Sail at Fair Grounds Dec. 23.

Fun House looks like a horse approaching a top effort. She returned from a two-month layoff last out on Nov. 6, and was beaten by a nose in a Churchill Downs allowance. She shows a five-furlong workout since, and her trainer, Steve Asmussen, gives the mount to Brian Hernandez Jr.

Fun House is the class of the Katy field with earnings of $416,522 for her owner, Winchell Thoroughbreds. She won the Grade 2 Buena Vista Handicap at Santa Anita in February.

Others invading from Kentucky for the Katy are Honorable Cat, second in an optional claimer last out at Churchill Downs, and Key to the Cat. Those two were scheduled to fly into Houston on Thursday, aboard a flight carrying some starters for the $1 million Delta Jackpot at Delta Downs, in nearby Vinton, La.

Another one of the chief contenders in the Katy is Lost Bride, who has won each of her last three starts and worked a bullet four furlongs in 46.20 seconds at Hollywood Park on Nov. 13. She will be making her first start for trainer Michael Stidham and will be ridden by Carlos Marquez Jr.