Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Lullaby Bling to Texas Futurity
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Lullaby Bling has established himself as a leading contender for the $100,000 Texas Thoroughbred Futurity July 15 at Lone Star Park with an eyecatching debut win here last Saturday. He rolled by 6 1/4 lengths in the maiden special weight.
“He came out of the race very well,” trainer Danele Durham said. “The next step is the Futurity.”
The Texas Thoroughbred Futurity has two divisions, each at five furlongs. The races are part of the annual Stars of Texas Day card of four restricted stakes worth a total of $300,000.
Lullaby Bling was content to track the pace under Iram Diego in the early stages of the five-furlong race before overtaking the leaders.
“It was perfect for him,” Durham said. “And the way he advanced and moved into the turn and made his little move was exactly what we were looking for. When Diego asked him to move and he changed leads, he accelerated with a really nice gear.”
Durham said Lullaby Bling had been ready to run earlier in the meet, but she elected to await some of the longer races for 2-year-olds.
“I was really wanting to run him the five furlongs as opposed to the 4 1/2 because he is a big colt,” Durham said. “I would think he’s probably pushing 16, 16-1 hands at this time as a 2-year-old, so he’s really not a 4 1/2-furlong kind of horse.”
Lullaby Bling looks every bit a chestnut in color, but is registered as a gray/roan with The Jockey Club. He falls on the roan side of the ledger, said Durham.
“A roan horse is a chestnut, or red horse, with white hair scattered throughout and he definitely has that,” she said. “The other thing The Jockey Club took into account is his parents. He’s by Too Much Bling, who is gray, and his mother, Soft Music, is a gray.”
Lullaby Bling, who was the co-leading seller at $100,000 at the Texas Thoroughbred Association auction of yearlings in 2017, will have some family tradition to uphold on Stars of Texas Day. His full sister Bling On the Music won a division of the Texas Thoroughbred Futurity in 2016. The victory came one start after the gray filly won her debut by 4 3/4 lengths at Lone Star under Diego.
The Gray Dehere to Prairie
The Gray Dehere was a clear winner of a maiden special weight for 2-year-olds last Sunday at Lone Star Park, and trainer J.R. Caldwell said the colt is now on pace to test stakes company in the $65,000 Prairie Gold Juvenile on July 20 at Prairie Meadows.
Making his second career start on June 24, The Gray Dehere set a pressured pace, shook free in the stretch, and won by 3 3/4 lengths despite drifting late in a five-furlong maiden race. In his debut June 10, The Gray Dehere ran second by a length to Dance to My Song, who earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 71, the best number put up by a 2-year-old this meet at Lone Star. The Gray Dehere earned a Beyer of 68 that day, and a 65 for his win on June 24.
“He’s a very talented colt,” Caldwell said. “All of his works were about bullet works up to his first start.”
The Gray Dehere is by Graydar.
“The stakes race at Prairie Meadows is what we were kind of shooting for, and I wanted him to break his maiden,” Caldwell said. “I thought he’d break it first out, but he didn’t, so I wheeled him back in two weeks, added blinkers to try to help him focus. They pressured him early. He kicked away, and then he gets to looking at something. He’s been well seasoned. He shouldn’t be looking around or drifting, and he drifted, so we’ve got to do a little more work with him. But, we’ve got [time] before the stakes.”
Caldwell said that Lane Luzzi is scheduled to ride The Gray Dehere back in the six-furlong Prairie Gold Juvenile.
◗ Lone Star Park will race Tuesday and Wednesday, July 3-4, this coming week, with fireworks to follow each program in a special holiday schedule. First post will be 5 p.m. Central. The track will then be dark until July 13.