Defending Lady Apple Tops Nominees To Houston Ladies Classic Sponsored by:
Lady Apple winning the 2020 edition of the Grade 3 Houston Ladies Classic under Ricardo Santana Jr.
Nominations have closed for the Houston Racing Festival at Sam Houston Race Park. The annual event, featuring six stakes and purses in excess of $1 million will be contested on Sunday, Jan. 31 with a special afternoon post time of 1:45 pm (CT).
The Houston Racing Festival includes two graded stakes, the Grade 3, $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic and the Grade 3, $200,000 John B. Connally Turf.
The Houston Ladies Classic, to be contested at 1 1/16 miles on the main track, closed with 22 nominations including 2020 champion Lady Apple. The 5-year-old daughter of Curlin out of the Clever Trick mare Miss Mary Apples is owned by Phoenix Thoroughbred III and KatieRich Farms.
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Whoa Nellie wins the Pippin Stakes at Oaklawn on Jan. 25
Saturday s $75,000 Joseph E. Spanky Broussard, run at one mile and 70 yards at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans, La., drew a compact yet stellar field of three and 4-year-old fillies. To hear trainer Larry Jones tell it, Fox Hill Farms Inc s Whoa Nellie will only be getting started when they hit the finish line.
“As we say, her name is Whoa Nellie, so getting her pulled up after her gallops and races is like Woah Nellie, ” Jones said. “She ll run all day and her forte is to go two turns.”