Stroope starts pair in deep Assault Stakes

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – There are no easy answers in the $50,000 Assault Stakes on Sunday at Lone Star Park.

“I think there’s quite a few horses in there who can win it,” said trainer Larry Stroope, who will saddle both Bonjour Baby and Valentine Street in the field of 12.

The Assault is one of four restricted stakes on the Stars of Texas Day program. The races are worth a cumulative $300,000. The stakes also form a late pick four that will have a minimum guaranteed pool of $25,000. The sequence runs on races 6-9.

The Assault is the final leg, and separating the field for the one-mile turf race for 3-year-olds and up bred in Texas is a task. Bonjour Baby, Redatory, and Highway Song figure to start as top contenders as turf-route stakes winners, while there also will be support for main-track sprint-stakes winners Rumpole, My Bling, and Texas Long Bow.

Bonjour Baby exits the allowance prep, having finished fourth before getting moved up to third following the disqualification of runner-up Redatory. In the June 8 race at Lone Star, Bonjour Baby, who broke from the 2 hole, found himself some 15 lengths off the pace.

“The outside horse took out everybody on the inside, came over on everybody,” Stroope said. “The 1, 2, 3, and 4 took the worst of it.

“We’ll be closer to the pace. We will not be that far back.”

Bonjour Baby won a one-mile turf allowance at Sam Houston in March and captured the $50,000 Houston Turf over the same course back in 2018. In his last stakes appearance, he was second by a neck in the $50,000 Richard King, a turf route for Texas-breds in March at Sam Houston.

“He’s very consistent,” said Stroope, who trains Bonjour Baby for Alvin Wong. “He has a really big heart. He gives us his best every time.”

Sasha Risenhoover has the mount from post 5.

Valentine Street exits the same allowance prep and was moved up from fifth to fourth. He is a half-brother to Grade 2 winner Kara’s Orientation.

Shes Our Fastest will cut back to one turn and return to dirt for the $50,000 Valor Farm, a six-furlong race for fillies and mares bred in Texas. The field of nine includes last year’s winner, Brave Daisey, and the up-and-coming 3-year-old stakes winner Ima Discreet Lady.

Shes Our Fastest was second by a neck in last month’s $50,000 Lane’s End Danny Shifflett Scholarship Stakes at 7 1/2 furlongs on turf at Lone Star.

“She ran a good race, just got caught, for really her first time on turf,” said trainer Scott Gelner.

Iram Diego has the mount from post 3 for Mark Norman and Norman Stables.

“She’s run good before coming off a route back to a sprint,” said Gelner. “I look for her to stay in her form.”

Shes Our Fastest registered her last stakes win at six furlongs on dirt in the Yellow Rose in March at Sam Houston.

A full field of 12 fillies will meet in one of two divisions of the $100,000 Texas Thoroughbred Futurity. The 5 1/2-furlong race for 2-year-olds also has a $100,000 division for colts and geldings Sunday.

Sing the Song and Flat Precious figure to vie for favoritism in the fillies’ race following dominant maiden special weight victories at Lone Star. The field also includes It’s My Money, who won her career debut last month in the $65,000 Pan Zareta division of the Texas Stallion Stakes at Lone Star.

Sing the Song was a 4 1/2-length debut winner June 8 and was flattered when Flat Precious, who was second, came back in her next start to win by 5 1/4 lengths on June 30.

“Sing the Song just jumped up, grabbed the lead, and won fairly easily,” said Matt Hebert, who trains the daughter of Songandaprayer for Susan Moulton.

Hebert also will saddle Top Hat Charmer, who won her debut by a half-length May 11 at Lone Star.

“She was really gutsy,” Hebert said. “She won from the rail on a muddy track.”

Lindey Wade as the mount on Top Hat Charmer, who again breaks from the rail. Lane Luzzi will ride Sing the Song.

The recent stakes winners Moro Said Ready and Halfmoon Reef will shoot for more stakes success in the males’ Texas Thoroughbred Futurity.