Tapiture set for first Texas start in Lone Star Park Handicap

Tapiture will be making his first start in Texas on Monday when he runs in the Grade 3, $200,000 Lone Star Park Handicap, but he should feel right at home. His trainer, Steve Asmussen, has a division at the Dallas-area track. Asmussen also has a residence near Lone Star and ranks as the track’s all-time winningest trainer. Asmussen also notched a Lone Star Handicap win in 2013 with Master Rick.

Tapiture drew post 5 in a field of six when entries for the Lone Star Handicap were taken Friday. He will be making his third start of the year following a 2014 campaign in which he won a trio of graded races, including the West Virginia Derby, and finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. Asmussen, who trains Tapiture for Winchell Thoroughbreds, said Friday that the horse is settled in at Lone Star.

“I think he’s training nicely,” he said. “He’s ready.”

The Lone Star, for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/16 miles, is the co-richest race of the meet. Tapiture will vie for favoritism with Carve, the winner of last year’s Grade 3 Cornhusker Handicap at Prairie Meadows. The field also includes Texas Air, who on May 1 won the Grade 3, $200,000 Texas Mile at Lone Star.

Tapiture comes into the Lone Star Handicap off a third-place finish in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap on April 11. He had been entered in the Pimlico Special over Preakness weekend in Maryland but was scratched from the race.

“It was between the Pimlico Special and this, and we didn’t want to run him a mile and three-sixteenths right now,” Asmussen said. “The mile and a sixteenth distance of the Lone Star Handicap is what we feel he needs right now.”

Asmussen said the long-range goal with Tapiture is a return trip to the Breeders’ Cup.

The complete Lone Star Handicap field from the rail, with riders and weights: Endurance, Iram Diego, 111; Majestic City, Chuck Lopez, 117; Cy Seven, David Cabrera, 112; Texas Air, Quincy Hamilton, 119; Tapiture, Ricardo Santana Jr., 121; and Carve, Jesus Castanon, 122.

The Weather Channel forecast for Monday at Lone Star is a high of 84 degrees with a 50 percent chance of precipitation. There also is rain in the local forecast for Sunday. The card will have a special post time of 1:35 p.m. Central. The Lone Star Handicap is scheduled as the ninth race at 5:19 p.m.