-photo by Coady Photography


-photo by Coady Photography

Selma, Texas (October 4, 2003) - On a night when Retama Park distributed a record $528,000 in purse money primarily to Texas-bred horses and the 2003 inductees to the Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame were honored, two new track records were set Saturday night over the track’s turf course.

Fly Slama Jama, a 40-to-1 shot, ruled the signature stakes race, $100,000 Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame Stakes. Jockey Weldon Cloninger, Jr. sent the five-year-old horse right to the front, where he stayed to the wire. Winning time for the 1 1/16-mile feature race was a record-setting 1:40.79.

Fly Slama Jama, saddled by John Locke, won for just the fourth time in 24 starts and paid a healthy $82.20 to win. Locke said afterward that he was prompted to enter the race by owner Hubert Bell.

Earlier in the $35,000 Fiesta Mile, odds-on favorite Eagle Lake proved much the best as she galloped home in a course record 1:34.54 for the one-mile race on the lawn. Eagle Lake, a multiple stakes winner trained by Cole Norman, won for the 13th time in 44 starts and moved her earnings past the $450,000 mark.