Foster has built strong stable

Trainer Joey Foster has built up a stable to be reckoned with in Louisiana and on Friday night will saddle starters in two of the three allowances carded at Delta Downs.

Foster, 57, won his fourth Louisiana Downs training title at the end of September. He’s since set up divisions of his stable at Delta and Fair Grounds, which opens Nov. 28.

“He’s a really underrated horseman,” said Morris Nicks, the retired trainer who has longstanding ties to Foster. “He can train with anybody.”

Foster won the recent Louisiana Downs title with 54 wins and topped all trainers in stable earnings with $562,020. Karl Broberg, who leads all trainers in North America in wins this year with 486 through Tuesday, ranked second in the Louisiana Downs standings, with 45.

“Broberg got me last year – he didn’t get me this year,” Foster said. “He’ll be hot on my trail next year.”

Foster sent out arguably the most impressive 2-yearold winner of the Louisiana Downs meet in Our Lost Love. She captured a maiden special weight Sept. 14 with a Beyer Speed Figure of 83. The number is the highest earned by a 2-year-old in the Southwest in 2019.

Our Lost Love, now based at Fair Grounds, is one of a number of promising young horses Foster has in his stable of 60 horses. Another is Cindy’s

Prayer, who was third to Our Lost Love at Louisiana Downs. She is by Constitution, sire of recent Grade 3 winner Independence Hall.

“We’re looking for Cindy’s Prayer to be good at the Fair Grounds,” Foster said, “and we’ve also got some 2-year-olds that we haven’t run yet that look promising.”

On the Delta card, Foster sends Reckless Ransom in the opener, an optional $30,000 claiming sprint for Louisianabreds. He is coming off a secondlevel allowance win Oct. 24.

Harbor King is in the sixth, a conditioned allowance around two turns, after running fourth at the same level at 49-1.

The allowance horses and 2-year-olds are just a part of the makeup of the barn.

“We do a lot of claiming,” Foster said. “We play the claiming ranks.”

Foster is a native of Missouri. “I was raised in Arkansas,” he said. “That’s where I got started, at Oaklawn.”

One of the first trainers he worked for was Nicks – back in the 1980s.

“Joey had been ponying horses and wanted to learn the training end of it,” Nicks said. “I put a lot on him that first year at Oaklawn Park and he took it.”

Nicks said Foster is an excellent horseman. He was part of the Nicks operation when the trainer’s son Ralph Nicks was coming up, too. Ralph Nicks now trains on the East Coast.

“They’re really like brothers,” said Morris Nicks.

Foster registered his first win as a trainer in 1992 in Louisiana.

Texas purses to jump in 2020

Sam Houston has announced significant upgrades to its purse structure for the 39-date meet that opens Jan. 10. The track, which is running seven more dates than last year, races through March 28.

Sam Houston averaged $140,000 a day in purses last meet, but Frank Hopf, senior director of racing operations for the track, projects that figure will rise to $240,000 this meet. Sam Houston will open with maiden special weight races worth $36,000, compared to $20,000 last year. In addition, allowances that started at $21,000 will now start at $37,000. Hopf said $5,000 claiming races that had a purse of $6,250 will now be worth about $11,500.

The increases are due to a new Texas law that calls for a portion of existing taxes on specific horse products and services to be placed in an escrow account that will be capped at $25 million a year. The funds can in part be used for purses. They started accruing Sept. 1. Sam Houston will put on the state’s first meet in 2020.

“I think the most exciting part of this is just the start of rebuilding racing in Texas,” Hopf said. “We’ve got an opportunity from the legislative side of the state. We’re the first ones up to bat and we’re ready to make it work.”

Sam Houston’s $1.75 million stakes schedule will again be led by the Grade 3, $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic for fillies and mares at a mile and a sixteenth and the Grade 3, $200,000 John B. Connally for 4-year-olds and up at a mile and a half on turf, both Jan. 26. The card of six stakes worth $950,000 also includes the new $200,000 Texas Turf Mile for 3-year-olds. Texas Champions Day is March 21 and the seven stakes on the card have each been boosted from $50,000 to $75,000.

James Leatherman has been named racing secretary for Sam Houston and also will continue to serve as racing secretary for Retama Park.

Lone Star Park, which opens in April, has entered into an initial agreement with the Grand Prairie, Texas, Sports Facilities and Development Corporation to share in the cost of plant improvements, according to a press release. They include adding video surveillance cameras in all barns, a “Duralock” moveable turf rail, a cooling down area for horses 100 yards past the finish line, and round pens on the backstretch.

“The city of Grand Prairie and Lone Star Park management have a unique and productive partnership,” Ron Jensen, mayor of Grand Prairie, said in the release. “Thanks to the actions of the Texas Legislature this past session, horse racing in Texas is back on an upward trajectory.”