Horse Racing
TEXAS HORSE OF THE YEAR, DIVISIONAL CHAMPIONS TO BE HONORED SATURDAY, JANUARY 10TH
The Texas Thoroughbred Association will honor the owners and breeders of the 2008 Texas Horse of the Year and the respective divisional champions at its annual awards banquet at the Westin Park Central in Dallas on Saturday evening. There will also be several individual awards presented, including the Allen Bogan Award for TTA member of the year and the T. I. “Pops” Harkins Award for lifetime achievement.
Kirk Robison’s fleet Stealth Cat will be honored as the 2008 Texas Horse of the Year and Texas Champion Older Mare. Jann K. Jones and James S. Kenney bred Stealth Cat in partnership. Stealth Cat’s dam, Dixie’s Integrity, will be recognized as the 2008 Broodmare of the Year.
Other divisional winners and the owners and breeders are: Older Horse/Gelding, Scrappy Roo, owned by Tawana Cantrell and bred by Dr. David S. Taylor; 3-Year-Old Colt/Gelding, Ablaze With Spirit, owned by Heiligbrodt Racing Stable and bred by Donald R. Dizney; 3-Year-Old Filly, Formal Flyer, a John R. Silverthorne Ranch homebred; 2-Year-Old Colt/Gelding, Valid Message, owned by H&H Ranch and bred by Ed Few; 2-Year-Old Filly, Bridesmaid, owned by W. S. Farish and bred by the partnership of Farish, James Elkins and BCWT Ltd.
The other honorees will be Valor Farm owner Clarence Scharbauer, 2008’s leading ATB Money Earner; Donald R. Dizney as The Blood-Horse Breeder of the Leading Texas-bred Money Earner in 2008; Supreme Cat as Thoroughbred Times Leading Freshman Sire; and O My Darlin Diane, the Champion Texas-bred Claimer, owned by Henry S. Witt Jr., who also owned Angry Angel, the 2007 recipient of the award.
TEXAS H.O.R.S.E DISCUSSION SET FOR LUNCH BREAK DURING ANNUAL CONFERENCE
TTA’s annual conference on Saturday will include an in-depth presentation on Texas Horse Organizations for Racing, Showing and Eventing (Texas HORSE), the 8-organization entity that has been formed to lead legislative efforts in 2009. Texas HORSE president Jim Helzer and Executive Director Val Clark will lead off the presentation by discussing purposes, goals, participation and grassroots. I will discuss the “Good for Texas” provisions in the bill draft, including the Performance Horse Development Fund, which will provide a revenue stream to the show side of the Texas horse industry.
Morning and afternoon seminars will sandwich the Texas HORSE luncheon. In mid-afternoon, TTA will hold its annual meeting. Texas Quarter Horse Association is meeting at the same hotel and many TQHA and TTA members are expected to get together at a welcoming reception on Friday evening and again at TQHA’s casino night on Saturday after TTA’s annual awards banquet.
2009 LONE STAR PARK MEET FEATURES 32 STAKES WORTH $3.5 MILLION
The 2009 Spring Thoroughbred Season at Lone Star Park 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.
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).
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, which 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.
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).
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.
Fast furlongs...The respective synthetic racing surfaces at Santa Anita and Turfway Park are coming under scrutiny of track officials, owners and trainers because of an increase in the number of breakdowns during their current winter meetings...Pat Pope, former racing secretary at Louisiana Downs and Prairie Meadows, has been named the new racing secretary at Delaware Park...Coleman Lloyd, who worked in the race office at Lone Star Park when it opened, is the new racing secretary at Evangeline Downs...Andrea Young has been promoted to president and COO of Sam Houston Race Park...Gulfstream Park, which just opened its 2009 racing season, has filed a request to open this fall on November 26, five weeks ahead of its usual January opening...The New York Racing Association has reached an agreement with TVG to remain on that racing network for two more years...Kentucky’s new speaker of the House, Greg Stumbo, is an outspoken supporter of legalizing slots and will file a bill during the upcoming 30-day session...The 2009 Texas Legislature will convene on Tuesday, January 13, at noon, and all indications are that Joe Straus III, who was born 49 years ago into a family with a long history of involvement in racing, breeding and other horse activities, will be elected the new speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.
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