Pat Day to Help Open Lone Star Season

Hall of Fame jockey Pat Day, horse racing's all-time earnings leader, will ride at Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie on opening night of the Texas racetrack's Thoroughbred season, Thursday, April 3.

Day, one of the most popular fixtures in horse racing, will ride at Lone Star Park and participate in a free autograph session at 4:30 p.m., one day before he travels to Lexington for the April 4 opening of Keeneland's racing season.

Day will probably have a mount in the $50,000 Premiere Stakes. The race is a one-mile test for older Texas-breds and is the traditional first race of the season at Lone Star Park. Assistant racing secretary Jeanette Hughes will assist Day and his agent in securing mounts that evening.

In addition, the 49-year-old horseracing legend will be the guest of honor at the April 2 Lone Star Park Opening Cocktail Party, a fundraising event for the Lone Star Park Charitable Foundation for Grand Prairie and the Racetrack Chaplaincy of North Texas. He'll also appear at a special luncheon on April 3 for local clergy. Day serves on the executive board of the Racetrack Chaplaincy of America.

Day, who won last year's grade III, $300,000 Lone Star Park Handicap on millionaire Congaree, is the second straight Hall of Fame jockey to ride at Lone Star Park on opening night of the Thoroughbred season. Last year, Dallas-native Jerry Bailey won two races from four mounts, including the Premiere Stakes on 2001 Texas-bred Horse of the Year Lights on Broadway.

Day is one of only three jockeys to have ridden at least 8,000 winners in his career. Nine of those triumphs came in Triple Crown events. In addition to winning the 1992 Kentucky Derby aboard Lil E. Tee, Day has won a record five Preakness Stakes: Tank's Prospect (1985), Summer Squall (1990), Tabasco Cat (1994), Timber Country (1995) and Louis Quatorze (1996). He has also prevailed in the Belmont Stakes three times: Easy Goer (1989), Tabasco Cat (1995) and Commendable (2000).