Fri, 11 April 1997
Hi Al,
Well, things move at a high rate of speed around here lately--including the
entrants for the Lone Star Derby and the Texas Mile on Sunday April 20th at
Lone Star Park.
In a series of negotiations, Lone Star Park raised the purse for the Texas
Mile from $100,000 to $250,000. The purse increase was enough to lure
Carolyn and Sonny Hine to enter champion 3yo of last year, Skip Away.
Hearing the Skip Away would be coming to Texas, Bob Baffert promptly
chartered a plane for Isitingood and Semoran for the Mile, as well as Anet
for the Lone Star Derby. Baffert nearly changed his plans when he heard
that Skip Away would be carrying a minimal #116. The conditions of the race
are such that any horse which has not won a race this year gets the same
#116. Lone Star felt they could not change the conditions for one horse
without setting a bad precedent, and Baffert, sportsman that he is, decided
to bring his horses anyhow. I think he feels Texas racing in general and
LSP in particular deserve the horses to make this race go.
Other possible starters for the Lone Star Derby are Frisk Me Now, and the
Mandella trained Holzmeister. These races will be televised on ESPN Sunday
April 20th at 5-6pm CDT.
All reserved seating for the entire opening weekend sold out promptly.
Attendance is estimated to be 40,000+. Those of you at simulcasting
facilites likely will get to watch the LSP races as well, as the LSP signal
will be going out to 200 some odd outlets. Not bad, eh?
Last night, Roger and I were lucky enough to get the grand tour of LSP,
thanks to Mindy Hutchison LS's simulcasting coordinator. Lone Star is a
gorgeous facility, and we should all be proud to have it here. The layout
is beautiful, and it is apparent alot of thought went into the design. In
addition, the staff, from the management on down, is very pleasant. Thank
you, Lone Star, and Mindy.
I plan on being at LS opening weekend, so anyone out there planning to go,
let me know!! Those of you not coming opening weekend, please plan to
attend at some point. You wouldn't want to miss this place, I assure you.
If you are not able to come to LS, be sure to watch all the action on ESPN.
Hope to see you all there.
Jill
The Running Horse (https://www.isd1.com/)