The Lone Star Park Handicap has been replaced by a new turf stakes for fillies and mares as part of a number of notable changes to the Grand Prairie, Texas, track’s stakes schedule announced Friday night.
The Grade 3, $200,000 Lone Star Park Handicap, a 1 1/16-mile race that had been a staple in May, has been replaced by the $100,000 Lone Star Park Turf Stakes. The new offering for fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up, will be run May 27 at a mile on grass.
A funeral will be held on Monday for longtime Ontario thoroughbred owner Sam Lima, who died on Wednesday.
Lima received a special Sovereign Award for his contributions to racing in 2018. He was the longtime president of the Toronto Thoroughbred Racing Club, and was a former vice-president and director of the Ontario branch of the HBPA.
Visitation for Lima will be at the Newediuk Funeral Home at 2058 Kipling Ave. in Toronto on Saturday from 6-9 p.m., and on Sunday from 2-4 and 6-9 p.m.
There will be 59 stakes worth $18.4 million offered at the 2019 Belmont spring/summer meet, according to a schedule released Friday afternoon by the New York Racing Association.
Six stakes are getting purse cuts including the Belmont Derby, for 3-year-old males, and the Belmont Oaks 3-year-old females. The Belmont Derby will be worth $1 million, down from $1.2 million from its previous three runnings. For its first two runnings, the Belmont Derby was worth $1.25 million.
Conquest Mo Money, the runner-up in the 2017 Arkansas Derby and Sunland Derby, has entered stud at McKenna Thoroughbreds in New Mexico. He is fully booked for 2019, according to a press release from the farm.
Conquest Mo Money’s campaign in 2017 also included a seventh-place finish in the Preakness, 6 1/2 lengths behind winner Cloud Computing.
Conquest Mo Money is a New York-bred son of Uncle Mo. He is from the female family of Belmont Stakes winner Touch Gold.
Time off for Sheriff Brown
Danny Caldwell, who has won four of the last five owner titles at Oaklawn, led the Oaklawn standings after the first two weeks of racing. He has 40 horses in training at Oaklawn.
“Hopefully we place them in the right spots,” Caldwell said. “We’re going to try to win some races, make a little money. It seems like it’s getting tougher and tougher every year at Oaklawn.”
Following a sharp allowance win at Oaklawn Park, M G Warrior is headed to the Grade 3, $500,000 Razorback Handicap on Feb. 18, trainer Dallas Stewart said.
“He’s coming off a two-race win streak with a very nice win at Oaklawn,” Stewart said of the 4-year-old colt. “We’re going to challenge him there and see what happens.”
The Razorback Handicap will share a card with the Grade 3, $500,000 Southwest Stakes for 3-year-olds and the Grade 3, $200,000 Bayakoa for fillies and mares. All three stakes will be at 1 1/16 miles. Entries will be taken Friday, Feb. 15.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – C Z Rocket will make his long-awaited two-turn debut Sunday in the eighth race at Oaklawn Park.
“We’ve wanted to run him around two turns ever since we bought him,” said trainer Al Stall Jr.
The eighth race Sunday is an allowance for 4-year-olds and up at a mile that drew Grade 3 winners Shotgun Kowboy, Colonelsdarktemper, and Limation. Adding further depth to the nine-horse field is High North, winner of last year’s Iowa Derby, and Exclamation Point, an undefeated half-brother to champion Classic Empire.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The undefeated 3-year-olds Game Winner, Improbable, and Instagrand worked at Santa Anita on Friday morning, and a couple of them could be headed for the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes on March 9.
Game Winner, the champion 2-year-old male of 2018, worked five furlongs in 1:00.20 in company with a stablemate. Unraced since a win in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 2, Game Winner began two lengths behind his stablemate and drew alongside in early stretch.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Catalina Cruiser, a two-time Grade 2 winner who was sixth in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Churchill Downs in November, has resumed training after a late autumn rest.
Trainer John Sadler said earlier this week that Catalina Cruiser is being prepared for springtime comeback. Catalina Cruiser has yet to have a workout this year.
“He’s back in training,” Sadler said. “We turned him out. We want to have him good at the end of the year.”
A section of the racetrack at Turfway Park located approximately a quarter-mile before the finish is being examined after not draining adequately, leading to the cancellation of racing at the Florence, Ky. track on Thursday, Turfway Park general manager Chip Bach said.
