Sam Houston creates $400,000 stakes race

Sam Houston Race Park has created a $400,000 stakes race for fillies and mares to be held Jan. 26 as part of a redesigned, 21-race stakes schedule released Tuesday. The Houston Ladies Classic is for 4-year-olds and up at a mile and a sixteenth, and it will share a card with three other stakes, including the Grade 3, $200,000 Connally Turf Cup.

The races top a stakes schedule worth nearly $1.7 million, up from $1.1 million a year ago. Sam Houston opens its meet Jan. 18. The track is to race 34 dates through March 17, pending approval from the Texas Racing Commission.

The Houston Ladies Classic will be the richest Thoroughbred race ever run at Sam Houston, which opened in 1994. It will also be the richest currently run Thoroughbred race in Texas, surpassing the $300,000 Lone Star Park Handicap that was held in May. Increases in handle have provided for the creation of a major race, said Sam Houston president Andrea Young.

“We’re trying to attract more interest nationally,” she said. “This will give us the opportunity to get some big names to Houston.”