Mubtaahij has only four rivals

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Grade 1 winner Mubtaahij, who in his last start was third in the Dubai World Cup, drew the rail in a field of five for the Lone Star Park Handicap. The Grade 3, $200,000 race will be run Sunday.

Mike Smith has the mount on Mubtaahij for trainer Bob Baffert, the same team that won last year’s Lone Star Park Handicap with Danzing Candy and Saturday’s Preakness with Justify.

The complete field for the Lone Star Park Handicap, from the rail: Mubtaahij, Smith; Full of Luck, Flavien Prat; Shotgun Kowboy, Luis Quinonez; Fear the Cowboy, Luis Negron; South Beach, Iram Diego.

Mubtaahij, Full of Luck, and Fear the Cowboy are all nominated to the Grade 1, $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita, which runs Saturday. Entries for the 1 1/4-mile race were to be taken Wednesday.

The Lone Star Park Handicap will be run over 1 1/16 miles. Mubtaahij is the 124-pound highweight and the even-money favorite on Lone Star’s morning line. The race will go as the ninth with a scheduled post of 6:42 p.m. Central.

Mubtaahij last raced March 31, finishing third to winner Thunder Snow in the Dubai World Cup at Meydan. He races for Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid al Maktoum.

Iram Diego won 10 races at Lone Star from Friday through Sunday. Nine of the wins came for Steve Asmussen, who trains South Beach.

Asmussen won 15 races from last Friday through Sunday, with 10 of those wins coming at Lone Star. He also won four stakes at Pimlico – all with jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. – and a maiden race at Belmont Park. Asmussen on May 5 became the second trainer in North American history to win 8,000 races for Thoroughbreds.

Santana suspended for 7 days

Jockey Ricardo Santana Jr., a Churchill Downs-based rider who won five stakes races over Preakness weekend at Pimlico, on Sunday began serving a seven-day suspension for a riding infraction at Lone Star Park. It runs through Saturday.

In a ruling, Santana was cited by the Lone Star stewards for careless riding in the eighth race May 6. He finished second by a head aboard Como Se Llama, who was disqualified and placed fourth in the $5,000 claiming sprint. Santana was at Lone Star to ride in the Grade 3, $200,000 Steve Sexton Mile, which he won one race later with Bee Jersey.

The ruling does not prohibit Santana from riding in designated stakes races and he could see stakes action Saturday.

“He will be able to ride two stakes at Churchill,” said Santana’s agent, Ruben Munoz.

Santana’s stakes winners at Pimlico were Switzerland in the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint; Mitole in the Chick Lang; Tap Daddy in the James W. Murphy; Song of Spring in the Grade 3 Allaire duPont Distaff; and Vertical Oak in the Skipat.

Santana also finished third in the Preakness aboard Tenfold.

◗ Grade 2 winner Patrona Margarita is part of a five-horse field for the $65,000 Got Koko division of the Texas Stallion Stakes on Saturday at Lone Star Park. Jamie Theriot has the mount from