Spring meet opens Thursday with more turf racing

When Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, opens for its 18th Thoroughbred spring meet Thursday night, the track will utilize something it couldn’t for much of the first month of last year’s meet: its turf course.

Four grass races are scheduled for opening night – two more than Lone Star ran last year from the meet’s April 11 opening day through May 9 due to myriad problems with the course.

“This winter wasn’t as warm as we would have liked,” said Scott Wells, a Remington Park executive now in his first Thoroughbred meet as Lone Star Park president and general manager. “But the course is in much, much better shape than last year.”

Beyond offseason work to improve the turf, little about the racing product at Lone Star will have changed from last year. Purses mirror those from 2013 at about $145,000 a day, the trainers and jockeys are largely the same competitors from other recent Lone Star meets, and the $50,000 Premiere Stakes, as usual, is the opening-night feature.

Within the facility, more change is evident, as was the case over the past couple of years while the track underwent an $11 million capital improvement campaign. That began after the track’s operating assets were purchased by Global Gaming Solutions, a subsidiary of Chickasaw Nation, which also owns Remington Park.

New to the facility this meet is an upgraded in-house television system and a remodel of the suites and group event rooms. Among the areas modernized were the Alysheba Room on the second floor, the first-floor Dash for Cash Room, and a new, high-end suite celebrating Lone Star history on the seventh floor called the Hall of Fame Suite, which replaced the track’s old press box.

A key change to the schedule is the shift from afternoon to night racing Saturdays – putting the track typically on a nightly schedule from Thursdays to Saturdays at 6:35 p.m. Central. The 6:35 post does not apply on the dates of the three Triple Crown races, May 3 and 17 and June 7, when Lone Star will run its first race at the rather unique time of 3:33 p.m.

The decision to race Saturday nights was made to position Lone Star Park as more of a “party” destination, better allowing it to utilize its 48 suites, while seeking to have its races gain more notice in a busy Saturday simulcast marketplace, Wells said.

Beginning April 27, Lone Star will add Sunday racing at 1:35 p.m., a schedule that will continue until June 15, when the track reverts to a Thursday-Saturday racing week. The meet, 50 days in length, will continue until July 12, with a special holiday card scheduled for Memorial Day, May 26, at 1:35 p.m. and a special post of 5 p.m. for its Fourth of July card, which leads into a fireworks show.

Horse racing in Texas remains a challenging business environment, with tracks not having slot machines, off-track betting, or legal advance-deposit wagering.

“We’re not a casino racetrack,” said racing secretary Michael Shamburg. “So, we have to fight it out in the trenches.”

Eighty-seven horses were entered in nine races opening night, up from last year’s 74 horses, when the track carded only dirt races.

Shamburg said additions to the Lone Star backstretch this year include trainers Chris Hartman and Bob Young, who are back after missing the past few Lone Star meets, and Hall of Famer Jack Van Berg. Returning to Lone Star with large stables will be trainers Danny Pish, Steve Asmussen, Bret Calhoun, and Jack Bruner, among others.

Lindey Wade and Glen Murphy, first and second in the jockeys’ standings last year, have multiple calls opening night, as does Sam Houston Park’s leading rider, Gerardo Mora. They and other riders will battle to become leading rider in a colony that will become deeper once the meet at Oaklawn Park ends, when Luis Quinonez and Cliff Berry shift their tack to Lone Star.

The Premiere Stakes kicks off the track’s 11-race stakes schedule, which is similar to last year’s, except for a significant purse cut from $300,000 to $200,000 made to the Grade 3 Lone Star Handicap on May 26 and another race being renamed.

Defending champion Triumph and Song appears to be a standout in the Premiere, having won four straight races, including three consecutive stakes since being claimed for $40,000 by trainer Karl Broberg for owner H & H Ranch on Dec. 29 at Fair Grounds.

“We claimed him at the right time, with two Texas-bred stakes in mind, and with the third one, we got lucky there,” Broberg said, in reference to the open Houston Sprint Cup that came in Triumph and Song’s most recent start Feb. 22.

Gold Element and Solar Charge are his primary adversaries in the 6 1/2-furlong Premiere Stakes, which goes as the fifth race.

Clear but windy weather is forecast for Thursday night, with temperatures in the 70s.