Turf racing in focus at 26-date meet

Retama Park near San Antonio will make good use of its turf course during the 26-date meet that opens Friday night.

The track’s signature races, the El Joven and La Senorita stakes, are both on the grass, while the pair of stakes making up its annual Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame program will also be on turf. In addition, a starter handicap series on the grass that gets under way on opening night will be run through the closing-night card Nov. 26.

Retama will race every Friday and Saturday during the meet beginning at 6:45 p.m. Central.

The El Joven and La Senorita will share a card Oct. 15. The races for 2-year-olds at a mile highlight the six-race stakes schedule. The purse for each race is $75,000.

The meet’s other turf stakes are the $50,000 Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame Stakes and the $50,000 Fiesta Mile. Both races are routes restricted to horses bred in Texas, and they will share a card Oct. 29. The program is designed to complement inductions into the Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame. The five individuals to be enshrined during a Retama gala on the same night are First Down Dash, Hugh Fitzsimons, Dr. Nat Kieffer, John T.L. Jones, and Jay Pumphrey.

The final stakes offerings of the meet will be on the main track Nov. 5. Retama will put on a pair of $65,000 divisions of the Texas Stallion Stakes for 2-year-olds. The six-furlong races are named in honor of the late Clarence Scharbauer Jr., a prominent breeder and owner whose family raced 1988 Horse of the Year Alysheba.

The turf starter series opens with a five-furlong dash Friday night and continues at distances of 7 1/2 furlongs on Sept. 30, 1 1/16 miles on Oct. 28, and 1 3/8 miles on Nov. 26.

Retama’s nine-race card Friday night has drawn entries from Karl Broberg, who leads all trainers in wins in North America; Danny Pish, a perennial title winner at Retama; and George Bryant, who is coming off another strong season at Lone Star Park.

The riding colony includes Ted Gondron, a title winner at Sam Houston who returned from a layoff of nearly 10 years this summer at Lone Star.