Horse Racing
Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie announced that the track’s 2009 Spring Thoroughbred Season will feature 32 stakes, including five Grade 3 races, worth a total of $3.55 million in purses. The 65-day meet is scheduled for Thursday, April 9 through Sunday, July 26, 2009.
The season’s centerpiece is Lone Star Million Day – Texas’ richest day of Thoroughbred racing with stakes purses totaling $1.1 million – to be staged for the 11th consecutive year on Memorial Day, Monday, May 25. Three graded stakes events top the holiday card -- the Grade 3, $400,000 Lone Star Park Handicap (3-year-olds and up at 1 1/16 miles); Grade 3, $200,000 Dallas Turf Cup Handicap (3-year-olds and up at 1 1/8 miles on turf) and Grade 3, $200,000 Ouija Board Distaff (fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up, at one mile on the turf).
Three $100,000 stakes -- the Valid Expectations Stakes (fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up, at six furlongs), USA Stakes (3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles on turf), and Cinemine Stakes (3-year-old fillies at seven furlongs) complete the Memorial Day lineup that begins at 1:35 p.m.
The Grade 3, $400,000 Lone Star Derby for 3-year-olds (1 1/16 miles) on Saturday, May 9, highlights the meet’s second richest day that also includes two $125,000 Texas Stallion Stakes for 3-year-olds, with a division for colts and geldings and the other for fillies also to be run at 1 1/16 miles.
Another highlight of the 2009 meet will be Lone Star Million Preview Day on Saturday, April 25 with four stakes, topped by the Grade 3, $300,000 Texas Mile Stakes (3-year-olds and up at one mile), which serve as local preps to Lone Star Million Day races.
Texas-breds and progeny of Texas stallions will be showcased Saturday, July 11 in the ninth annual Stars of Texas Day. The six stakes schedule worth $500,000 is highlighted by two divisions of the $125,000 Texas Stallion Stakes (2-year-olds at 5 ½ furlongs) and the $100,000 Assault Stakes (Texas-bred 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/16 miles).
Other key Spring Thoroughbred Season dates will be simulcasts of the Triple Crown: the 135th Kentucky Derby from Churchill Downs on Saturday, May 2, the 134th Preakness Stakes from Pimlico Race Course on Saturday, May 16, and the 141st Belmont Stakes from Belmont Park on Saturday, June 6.
Lone Star Park’s 2009 Spring Thoroughbred Season will run four days a week every Thursday and Friday at 6:35 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 1:35 p.m. starting on April 9. The Lone Star Million program on Memorial Day will start at 1:35 p.m. and special twilight programs with post-race holiday fireworks on Friday, July 3 and Saturday, July 4 (Lone Stars & Stripes Fireworks Celebration) will commence at 5 p.m. (All times are Central Time).
Lone Star Park’s 31-day, 2009 Quarter Horse Fall Meeting of Champions will be held from Sept. 25 to Nov. 28.
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