Two new sales stakes to be run at Evangeline Downs

Horses sold through the upcoming Breeders Sales Company of Louisiana yearling auction will now be eligible for a new sales stakes to be run at Evangeline Downs in 2017, the auction company owned by the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders Association announced Saturday. The sale is scheduled for Sept. 29 at the Ike Hamilton Expo Center in West Monroe, La.

Evangeline extended an invitation to the Breeders Sales Company to be part of the stakes for 3-year-olds that will be restricted to horses sold through either the LTBA auction or any sale put on by the Equine Sales Company of Louisiana starting in 2015. There will be divisions for colts and geldings, and fillies, with each race worth $75,000. The dates and distances of the divisions will be announced later.

“We are very pleased with this new development,” Tom Early, president of the LTBA, said in a release. “Our sale has been the leader in the state for over 25 years. To partner with Evangeline Downs and the horsemen of the state in forming these two new stakes races is ideal for everyone involved.”

In addition to the new sales stakes at Evangeline, any yearling that passes through the Sept. 29 sale continues to be eligible for the A.L. “Red” Erwin Memorial Stakes or the Elge Rasberry Memorial Stakes, a pair of stakes for 3-year-olds at Louisiana Downs.