Sam Houston Race Park has made an adjustment to the richest Thoroughbred race in Texas, the Houston Ladies Classic. The purse for the mile and a sixteenth race for fillies and mares has been reduced from $400,000 to $300,000 for its 2019 running on Jan. 27. The race remains the richest Thoroughbred offering in Texas. 

The purse adjustment was one of two changes to the $1.3 million stakes schedule Sam Houston announced Wednesday morning. The track has canceled its $100,000 Maxxam Gold Cup for 2019. The mile and an eighth fixture for 3-year-olds and up had been run in late February.   

“Our goal for the 2019 Thoroughbred season is to bolster our overnight races to support our local horsemen and create full fields to the benefit of our loyal horseplayers,” Frank Hopf, senior director of racing for Sam Houston, said in a press release. “The Houston Racing Festival and Texas Champions Day will anchor our stakes program, which remain very popular with local fans and horseplayers across the country.”

The Houston Ladies Classic will again share a card with the Grade 3, $200,000 John B. Connally Turf Cup - to be run at a mile and a half - and the $75,000 Frontier Utilities Turf Sprint, the $50,000 Houston Turf Cup, the $50,000 Sam Houston Sprint Cup and the $50,000 Jersey Lilly.

Sam Houston previously announced the dates of its biggest races, its racing schedule and post times: https://www.drf.com/news/houston-ladies-classic-set-jan-27

Stall applications are due Nov. 6. The stable area will open Dec. 19 and the first day of training will be Dec. 26.