Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Turf Festival races form stakes pick four
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Archidust and Raintree Starlet bring win streaks into separate turf-sprint stakes on the Sunday card at Lone Star Park. But while Archidust is proven on the grass, Raintree Starlet is looking for her first win on the grass.
The horses are among the top runners on the 11-race card that features four turf stakes worth a total of $300,000. The Summer Turf Festival includes an all-stakes pick four on races 8-11. The 50-cent bet will have a minimum guaranteed pool of $50,000.
Archidust will be chasing after his third straight win when he starts in the $75,000 Grand Prairie Turf Sprint for 3-year-olds and up over five furlongs. He’s won back-to-back allowances at the trip in his first starts at Lone Star.
“We brought him to Lone Star because he likes a firm turf course,” said Steve Asmussen, who trains the six-time stakes winner for Crawford Farms Racing. “He’s had a lot of success on a firm turf course, which you generally get in Texas this time of year. We’re hoping for that again.”
The forecast for Sunday is a high of 90 degrees and a small chance of rain, according to The Weather Channel.
Archidust made his Lone Star debut on May 7, covering five furlongs on turf in a swift 55.93 seconds. He was entered in the Chamberlain Bridge on turf May 31 at Lone Star, but a mid-card rainstorm forced his scratch and he came back in a second local allowance on June 14. “It’s a touch quick back off the allowance, which was only necessary because of the latein-the-day storm,” Asmussen said. “The [stakes] came off the turf, and we scratched at that time.
“We’re very fortunate to have Archidust for a race like this.”
David Cabrera has the mount from post 5 in the six-horse field that includes the one-two finishers from the Chamberlain Bridge – My Boanerges and Share the Upside. My Boanerges is looking for his first turf win while Share the Upside is 4 for 5 on the grass and 2 for 2 over the course at Lone Star.
Raintree Starlet is part of an eight-horse field for the $75,000 Chicken Fried Stakes for fillies and mares over five furlongs on turf. Yes It’s Ginger will get good support as a specialist in from Kentucky, while Ima Discreet Lady is cross-entered in an allowance earlier on the card.
Raintree Starlet has won her last four starts by a combined margin of 16 1/4 lengths. The wins have come in sprints at Oaklawn, Will Rogers Downs, and Lone Star. As for turf, she is winless from four starts on the surface and on Sunday will be making her first grass start for trainer Robertino Diodoro.
“She gives me the impression she’s a mare that will run over anything,” he said. “At the same time, time’s going to tell.
“She’s got a big heart. She’s on a roll now. She’s a nice mare.”
Raintree Starlet is a daughter of Get Stormy, a Grade 1 winner on the grass who is getting 15 percent turf winners. Raintree Starlet’s dam, Birdie Told Me, was a main-track sprint winner.
Raintree Starlet, who in April won the $50,000 Wilma Mankiller Stakes at Will Rogers, has used her natural speed to build her win streak. She will break from post 6 under Ramon Vazquez and could get an ideal trip off Yes It’s Ginger.
“She doesn’t need to be on the lead,” Diodoro said.
M and M Racing owns Raintree Starlet, who enters the Chicken Fried following an offthe-turf allowance win at Lone Star that has produced two next-out winners, one of whom accounted for a Texas-bred stakes at Lone Star.
A Bit of Both, a four-time stakes winner invading for trainer Mike Maker, exits a race that produced a pair of next-out Grade 3 winners at Belmont Park – Change of Control in the Intercontinental and Oleksandra in the Poker.
Maker has Me and Mr. C in the $75,000 Singletary for 3-yearolds and up over 1 1/8 miles. The last time the horse raced at the distance he won the Turf Classic for state-breds at Tampa in March. Vazquez has the mount from post 2. The field includes Grade 1 winner Henley’s Joy, who will be making his first start since April after being scratched from a recent race that came off the turf.
Valentine’s Day also will be making her first start since April when she runs in the $75,000 Wasted Tears for fillies and mares over 1 1/16 miles. In her last start, she ran second by a half-length in the Miss Houston Turf Stakes at Sam Houston. The race has since produced three next-out allowance winners at Lone Star. Cabrera has the mount for trainer Bret Calhoun.