Lone Star Derby gets a boost
Courtesy Lone Star Park
Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie's Grade III Lone Star Derby will be worth $400,000 in 2008 as the 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds received a $100,000 boost for its 12th running on Saturday, May 10.
All told, Lone Star Park's 2008 Spring Thoroughbred Season will feature 32 stakes events, including five Grade III races, cumulatively worth $3.525 million. The 16-week meeting at the Dallas-Fort Worth area racetrack will commence Thursday, April 10, and will continue for 65 dates through Sunday, July 27. The Lone Star Derby, scheduled one week after the Kentucky Derby for the sixth time, joins the Grade III Lone Star Park Handicap as the richest race of the meet. It also helps comprise one of six programs that feature multiple stakes events.The season's centerpiece is Lone Star Million Day - Texas' richest day of racing with stakes purses totaling $1.1 million - to be staged for the 10th consecutive year on Memorial Day, Monday, May 26. Three graded stakes events top the holiday stakes parade: the Grade III, $400,000 Lone Star Park Handicap (3-year-olds and up at 1 1/16 miles); Grade III, $200,000 Dallas Turf Cup Handicap (3-year-olds and up at 1 1/8 miles on turf); and Grade III, $200,000 Ouija Board Handicap (fillies and mares at one mile on turf). The $100,000 Valid Expectations Stakes (fillies and mares at six furlongs); $100,000 USA Stakes (3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles on turf); and $100,000 Cinemine Stakes (3-year-old fillies at seven furlongs) complete the lineup.
Lone Star Park's 2008 Spring Thoroughbred Season will run four days a week every Thursday and Friday at 6:35 p.m. CT and Saturday and Sunday at 1:35 p.m. CT. The Lone Star Million program on Memorial Day will start at 1:35 p.m. CT, and special twilight programs with post-race holiday fireworks on Thursday, July 3 and Friday, July 4 (Lone Stars & Stripes Fireworks Celebration) will commence at 5 p.m. CT.
Reserved seating will go on sale in March. Packages for groups of 20 or more, including luxury suite rentals, are already being booked (call the group sales department at 972-237-5118 for more information). All told, Lone Star Park will host 96 live racing dates in 2008.
