(July 4, 2006) - Despite threats of thunderstorms, more than 38,000 fans attended Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie, Texas for two days of live horseracing and post-race holiday fireworks on Sunday and Monday. Attendance on Sunday totaled 17,617 and another 20,736 were in attendance Monday.

STARS OF TEXAS DAY LOOMS

State-bred Thoroughbreds will be spotlighted Saturday in the sixth annual Stars of Texas Day at Lone Star Park - the highlight of an abbreviated three-day week of racing that covers Friday through Sunday. Six stakes totaling $445,000 will help comprise an 11-race program devoted to Texas-breds.

The two richest races will be divisions of the Texas Stallion Stakes - 5 ½-furlong races for 2-year-old progeny of Texas-based stallions. Each race - the Staunch Avenger for colts and geldings and the Pan Zareta for fillies - features a guaranteed purse of $125,000.

Trainer Bret Calhoun, who ran 1-2-3-4 in the fillies division a year ago, is preparing for another raid this year. Be a Resident and Austin Lights, first and third in the $99,640 colts and geldings division of the TTA Sales Futurity in June, head his four-horse assault for the Staunch Avenger. His other two starters will be recent maiden winners Power Surge and Country Legend.

The Randy Mayfield-trained Wrenice, runner-up to Miss Mary Pat in the $111,330 fillies division of the TTA Sales Futurity, will be one of the top contenders for the Pan Zareta. Calhoun plans to defend his title with three runners: Lady Be Tru, Dyna's Diva and Hadif Cat.

"We've got a lot of bullets," Calhoun said. "Maybe we can get lucky again."

In the featured event for older Texas-breds, 5-year-old gelding Goosey Moose will attempt to win the $75,000 Assault Stakes for the third year in a row. In May, he prevailed in the Gold Nugget Stakes. Also nominated to the 1 1/16-mile race are stakes winners Agrivating General, Andanight, Charming Socialite, Dreamsandvisions, General Charley, Rare Cure and Senor Amigo.

Cookin's Cast and Tizzy Girl, separated by a neck in the April 29 JEH Stallion Station Stakes, could reunite in the $60,000 Allen Bogan Memorial Stakes for Texas-bred females at one-mile. Lissa's Star, owned by Bob and Janice McNair's Stonerside Stable, could go favored in the $40,000 Harold V. Goodman Memorial Stakes, a 6 ½-furlong sprint for Texas-bred 3-year-olds. Nominees to the $40,000 Valor Farm Stakes, a six-furlong sprint for Texas-bred 3-year-old fillies, include Texas Stallion Stakes winner Open Meadows and recent allowance winner She's Open Minded.

Entries for Saturday will be taken Thursday morning.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Because Lone Star Park raced Monday and Tuesday due to the Fourth of July holiday weekend, there will be no live racing on Wednesday or Thursday:

* Wednesday - No live racing (Post Time Pavilion open for simulcast wagering at 10:25 a.m.)
* Thursday - No live racing (Post Time Pavilion open for simulcast wagering at 10:40 a.m.)
* Friday - First of 10 live races at 6:35 p.m. CT (gates open at 5 p.m.)
* Saturday - First of 11 live races at 1:35 p.m. CT (gates open at 11:30 a.m.)
* Sunday - First of 9 live races at 1:35 p.m. CT (gates open at 11:30 a.m.)

SWEEPINGLY SHOOTS FOR RECORD FIFTH WIN OF MEET UNDER JOCKEY JUAREZ

Sweepingly, the upset winner of the $100,000 Beck Auto Group Turf Sprint on Memorial Day, will attempt to equal Saf Link's 2005 record for most wins in a single Lone Star Park meeting when he goes for victory No. 5 in Friday's ninth race.

Sweepingly, owned by New Mexico-based farrier Dave Pleasant and trained by Chris Hartman, was made the 8-5 morning line favorite for the five-furlong turf dash, a $26,000 allowance optional claiming race. The 7-year-old gelding is eligible to be claimed Friday for $35,000.

Since April 15, Sweepingly has won five in a row, with the latter four coming at Lone Star Park. He is the only four-time winner of Lone Star's 12-week-old meeting thus far.

Alfredo Juarez Jr., a new face to Lone Star Park in 2006, has been aboard in each of his last five triumphs, helping pave the way to a solid season. It wasn't an easy start to the meet for the 30-year-old Mexico City native, who went 0-for-13 in April before capturing his first local victory on May 3. Through Tuesday, he was sixth in the jockey standings with 27 trips to the winner's circle from 160 mounts - a 16.9% win-clip.

Juarez, who rode 139 winners in New Mexico in 2005, arrived at Lone Star in mid-April after finishing second in the 2005-06 Sunland Park standings.

"Every place that you go you're a new face," said Juarez, who's in his 13th year as a jockey. "It's hard to break in, especially when the meet has already started. My worry was that I wouldn't get too many mounts because of this. People don't know you so it's hard, but work a little bit and every door opens."

Being a jockey is his blood. His father, Alfredo Juarez Sr., is also a New Mexico-based jockey. "He rides once in a while when there's big mounts, but he's mainly galloping right now. I was really young, about two or three years old when I first rode a horse. As a kid I wanted to be a jockey. Alex Solis was my favorite rider. I really wanted to finish my degree in accounting, but I had to decide if I wanted to work at the track or go to school. I was making money riding, so I quit school."

Juarez started to ride professionally at age 16 in Mexico, where he was the country's leading apprentice in 1993. He came to the United States in 1996 after Hipódromo de las Américas briefly ceased operations in the mid 1990s. He's ridden at racetracks all over the nation including Emerald Downs, Turf Paradise, Aqueduct, the Chicago and New Mexico circuits and now Lone Star.

Earlier this meeting, he notched his third career graded stakes win when Trial by Jury posted an upset in the Grade III, $200,000 Dallas Turf Cup. He also won the 2000 Hawthorne Derby (Gr. III) with Rumsonontheriver (a dead-heat with Hymn) and the 2001 Grade III National Jockey Club Handicap aboard Chicago Six. "I beat a really nice horse and my horse was an Illinois bred," Juarez said of Chicago Six. "I won 10 races with this horse and he made over $700,000."

Juarez's favorite mount, however, was War Emblem, who went on to win the 2002 Kentucky Derby. "I broke his maiden and we won an allowance race. It was his preparation for the Illinois Derby, but then [trainer] Frank Springer took me off him. The rest is history."

LONE STAR ADDS SECOND DOLLAR DAY ON SATURDAY, JULY 15

Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie officials announced the addition of a second Dollar Day to the season for Saturday, July 15. First inaugurated in 2004, Dollar Day at Lone Star will feature beer, soft drinks, hot dogs, popcorn, general admission, general parking and programs for just $1 each. A crowd of 14,437 took advantage of Dollar Day earlier this season on Texas Mile Day, Saturday, April 29.

COUNTDOWN TO CLOSING DAY: 11 DATES

Only 11 racing dates remain at Lone Star's 10th Spring Thoroughbred Season. Closing day is Sunday, July 23.

DOWN THE STRETCH - With three weeks remaining at the meet, Cliff Berry holds a comfortable 83-69 advantage over Quincy Hamilton in pursuit of his second straight Lone Star Park riding title...Steve Asmussen, seeking his eighth local training championship, remains atop the trainer standings with 54 wins. Bret Calhoun (45 wins) and Cody Autrey (44) remain in striking distance...Jerry and Sandy Heflin of Rockwall, Texas pulled one victory ahead of Tom Durant in the race to be leading owner. The Heflins have 13 wins, while four-time local leading owner Durant has 12. Carl Moore Management and Frontier Stables are third with nine victories each...Friday's "Party at the Park" with 93.3 The Bone and Sportsradio 1310 The Ticket will feature live music by Farside Band and $1.75 Bud Light cans in the Courtyard of Champions from 7-11 p.m...In conjunction with Stars of Texas Day, there will be live music Saturday in the Courtyard from Texas Cartel from 12-4 p.m. Live 105.3 Free FM also will be on hand...Sunday is Senior Citizen's Day with free general admission for patrons 62 and up with proof of identification...Saturday simulcast highlights include an appearance by the top-ranked horse in country as multiple Grade I winner Lava Man returns to the main track for Saturday's Grade I, $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup. Also expected for the 1 ¼-mile race is Lone Star Park Handicap champ Magnum...Also at Hollywood Park will be the Grade II, $350,000 Swaps Breeders' Cup Stakes (3-year-olds including Point Determined and A.P. Warrior)...Monmouth Park is scheduled to run the Grade I, $750,000 United Nations (distance turf horses)...Belmont Park is hosting the Grade I, $250,000 Prioress Breeders' Cup Stakes (3-year-old filly sprinters)...Two Grade III juvenile stakes highlight closing day at Churchill Downs - the $150,000 Bashford Manor and $100,000 Debutante for fillies...Sunday's simulcast action includes the Grade III, $100,000 Lexington Stakes at Belmont Park (3-year-olds on turf)...There's an $81,707 Pick 6 carryover at Belmont Park on Friday. The first race at the New York racetrack is 2 p.m. CT.