(Grand Prairie, Texas - Tuesday, September 21, 2010) - Friday night’s trials for the Grade 2, $200,000 Estimated Dash For Cash Derby for 3-year-olds drew 53 contenders in six races who will be looking to earn a spot among the top 10 qualifiers for the finals to be run at Lone Star Park on Saturday, Oct. 9. The Dash For Cash Derby Trials, to be run at 440 yards, will be Races 4 through 9 on Friday night.

Dan Nicks’ Diamond for Jess, Rose Mary Chandler’s Acorn, and Rodney Christiansen’s Sir Seth are three of the top candidates to qualify.

The 4-5 morning-line favorite in Race 5, Diamond For Jess will be looking to improve upon his seventh-place finish in last year’s Dash For Cash Futurity at Lone Star Park. Trained by Lone Star Park’s second-leading trainer in 2009, Rick Robinson, the Feature Miss Jess gelding will be ridden by Luis Ramirez. A winner of seven from 14 starts with $195,903 in earnings, Diamond For Jess is two for four at Lone Star Park with wins in his Dash For Cash Futurity trial and the $15,000 Hippodromo de las Americas Stakes both last year over the Grand Prairie strip.

Acorn, who will be making his first start at Lone Star Park, comes into the trials with a three-race winning streak that includes the $33,000 Aquedan Prairie Meadows Derby Challenge on Aug. 28 and the $113,000 Sam Houston Derby on July 2 in his last two starts. The gelded son of Oak Tree Special, who is trained by Janet Van Bebber and will be ridden by the nation’s leading jockey in wins Alfonso Lujan, has six wins and two seconds from 10 starts with $100,768 in earnings. He is the 6-5 morning-line favorite in Race 7.

Lone Star Park’s leading trainer Trey Wood and top rider Ricky Ramirez from 2009 team up with Sir Seth, the 7-5 morning-line favorite in the first of the six trials in Race 4. The third-place finisher in both the Grade 1, $500,000 Ruidoso QH Futurity last year and the Grade 1, $569,000 Ruidoso QH Derby on June 12 also finished fourth in the Grade 1, $873,000 Rainbow Derby at the same track two races back. The son of First Down Dash, who also is making his first Lone Star Park start, has six wins with a second and two third-place finishes in 10 career starts with lifetime earnings of $150,382.

Two other contenders are P. Potts and J. & M. Helzer’s Call Me Fisher and Karen Caison’s Louisiana Blue Dream. Call Me Fisher, who will be ridden by the AQHA’s all-time leading jockey in earnings G. R. Carter, Jr. and is trained by Dwayne Gilbreath, comes into the trials on a two-race winning streak that includes a victory in the $42,000 Bayer Legend California Regional Challenge at Los Alamitos on Aug. 22 in his last race. The Fishers Dash gelding, who broke his maiden at Lone Star Park on Oct. 15 last year, is the even-money, morning-line favorite in Race 8.

Louisiana Blue Dream, who has hit the board in each of her six career starts with two wins, two seconds and a pair of third-place finishes for $83,333 in earnings, was the 2007 winner of the $150,000 All American Juvenile at Ruidoso Downs and finished third two races back in the $100,000 Remington Park Derby. Trained by Eddie Willis, the daughter Jess Louisiana Blue has been made the 8-5 by Rick Lee in the morning line for the ninth and final trial.

A couple of other notable competitors are The Zand Ltd. Partnership’s Gols Victory Pop and Bobby Cox’s Zoomin With Ease. Gols Victory Pop, also trained by Trey Wood with Ricky Ramirez in the irons, won the 2009 $49,000 Dash For Cash Juvenile Stakes at Lone Star Park after failing to qualify for last year’s Dash For Cash Futurity by the slimmest of margins, one one-thousandth (.001) of a second. With only one victory from 14 tries, Zoomin With Ease, the winner of the $625,000 Rainbow Futurity at Ruidoso Downs in 2009, is the leading money earner in the trials with $358,652 on the strength of that win.

The Dash For Cash Derby Trials will be run as Races 4 through 9 on the 10-race card with a first post time of 6:35 p.m. at Lone Star Park on Friday night. The fourth race has a scheduled post time of 7:47 p.m.