Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, will showcase most of its stakes races over four key cards during the track’s 41-date meet that opens Thursday night. The season will run through July 14.
The richest of the cards will be Lone Star Million Day, when six stakes worth a total of $1.2 million will be run on May 27. The program is anchored by the Grade 3, $400,000 Steve Sexton Mile and includes the $300,000 Texas Derby.
Jackman has broken out of jail in Arkansas and been found in Oklahoma, where he will start as a chief contender in the $50,000 Highland Ice Stakes on Tuesday at Will Rogers Downs.
The six-furlong race for 3-year-olds and up drew a competitive field of eight that includes stakes winners Fly to the Bank and Connors Outlaw. Another member of the field, Therideofalifetime, has won his last four starts in a streak that began in May at Louisiana Downs.
Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey this past Tuesday was bemoaning the Keeneland weather. McGaughey had entered horses every race day this week, Wednesday through Sunday, and nearly all of them were in for turf.
“I hope at least some of them stay on,” McGaughey said.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – A cutback in distance, the likelihood of a contested pace, and an outside post draw should all play in Doc Sullivan’s favor in Sunday’s $200,000 Times Square division of the New York Stallion Stakes at Aqueduct.
The Times Square, for 3-year-old males, and the Park Avenue, for 3-year-old fillies, are restricted to progeny of New York-based stallions and are run at 6 1/2 furlongs. They run as races 5 and 8, respectively, on Sunday’s nine-race card that also includes the $150,000 Top Flight Stakes for older females.
Always Angels could come flying through the stretch Monday at Will Rogers Downs if she and jockey David Cabrera can work out the right kind of trip from the rail in the $50,000 Wilma Mankiller Stakes.
There appears to be plenty of speed to set up for a closer in the 11-horse field, but negotiating the inside draw in the six-furlong race for fillies and mares, as well as traffic, are challenges facing the talented Always Angels.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Comparative and Tizzy in the Sky have done some of their best work at Aqueduct, which is most likely why their connections have sent them back to New York for Sunday’s $150,000 Top Flight Stakes for fillies and mares.
Originally scheduled for Saturday, the Top Flight, at 1 1/8 miles, only had four entered and the race was not used. Brought back for Sunday, Towhead became the fifth horse in the field.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Black Apple has set himself apart in the Arkansas-bred ranks at Oaklawn Park for not only his record, but also his coat color, and both will be on display in the sixth race Sunday.
The 1 1/16-mile allowance is designed to produce starters for the $200,000 Arkansas Breeders’ Championship here May 4. It drew a strong cast of eight, including past Arkansas-bred of the year Man in the Can and the formidable Lochmoor and Dinner At Crumpies.
Black Apple will be looking to win his fourth straight race at the meet Sunday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Ralph Nicks will bring down the curtain on his 20-year training career following the conclusion of Sunday’s program at Gulfstream Park.
Nicks, 57, has saddled 722 winners, the most notable being Eclipse Award winner Caledonia Road, winner of the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. He also won the Grade 1 Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs four years earlier with Aubby K.
