Texas-bred stakes take Sunday spotlight at Lone Star

Texas Thoroughbreds and others with Texas connections will be featured Sunday, as they show off their skills to prove which is best on Lone Star Showcase Day featuring five stakes races all with Texas ties.

First of the five featured stakes is the $50,000 Texas Horse Racing Hall Of Fame Stakes. This is the second running of this Texas-bred turf stakes for 3-year-olds and up going a mile and a sixteenth. The race was transferred to Lone Star from Retama Park last year. Stakes winner Moojab Jr will take on rivals Redatory and Sunlit Song, both multiple stakes winners. Moojab Jr defeated both earlier this year at Sam Houston in the Houston Turf Stakes. The Texas Horse Racing Hall Of Fame Stakes is carded as race 4 of the 10 races scheduled.

Next in the stakes action is the $75,000 Staunch Avenger division of the Texas Stallion Stakes for 2-year-old colts and geldings at five furlongs on the main track. Five have entered, but only one of these juveniles has raced previously. Pinky Bling Ring ran third in a Maiden Special Weight at Lone Star in May.

Race 7 is the 10th edition of the $75,000 Lane’s End Danny Shifflett Scholarship Stakes, a seven-and-a-half-furlong contest on the turf for fillies & mares, 3-year-olds and up. This field of 12 features four multiple stakes winners, Shes Our Fastest, Discreet Smile, Ima Discreet Lady and Corluna. Ima Discreet Lady has the best recent record winning two of four starts this year.

Race 8 is the $75,000 Pan Zareta division of the Texas Stallion Stakes 2-year-old fillies going 5 furlongs on the main track. Favorite It’s a Gee Thing won her debut here last month and will take on seven other juvenile fillies in this. Eagle Express finished second in her debut here also last month.

The final stake on the program is the 24th running of the $75,000 Wayne Hanks Memorial for Texas-bred 3-year-olds and up at six and a half furlongs on the main track. This field of seven features multiple stakes winner and defending champion, Direct Dial. This great veteran Texas Bred earner of $490,971 has already won two of his three starts this year. One other multiple stakes winner, Mr. Money Bags, has earned $418,836 in his career, but has only started once this year finishing fourth

First race post time is 3:35 p.m. EDT.