Sam Houston Race Park has increased the purse of its Grade 3 Houston Ladies Classic from $300,000 to $400,000 and renamed the $200,000 Texas Turf Mile for the late racing executive Bob Bork in the most significant changes to its $2.2 million stakes schedule that was released Tuesday. The Houston track will race 50 dates during its upcoming meet that opens Jan. 6. 

The Houston Ladies Classic - a mile and a sixteenth race for fillies and mares won this year by top class distaffer Letruska - will anchor the Houston Racing Festival of six stakes worth more than $1 million on Jan. 30. The program includes the Grade 3, $200,000 John B. Connally Turf for 4-year-olds and up over a mile and a half, and the $200,000 Bob Bork Texas Turf Mile for 3-year-olds. 

The Houston Ladies Classic and Connally will both be run Lasix-free in 2022, according to a press release from Sam Houston.  

Bork joined Sam Houston as its senior vice president and general manager in 1995 and was made the track's president in 2002. He died on June 11, at the age of 83, according to a press release from Sam Houston.    

“Bob Bork set a tremendous foundation for the growth of Sam Houston Race Park when he was hired in 1995,” Dwight Berube, who worked under Bork and is now the vice president and general manager of Sam Houston, said in a press release. "Throughout his 12-year tenure, he was admired by horsemen, horseplayers and employees and initiated many programs that have been emulated by racetracks across the country. We look forward to honoring him on the premier day of our upcoming racing season."

Other highlights of the stakes schedule include Texas Champions Day on March 26. There will be seven stakes for Texas-breds, and each will be worth $100,000. A slate of stakes serving as steppingstones to Texas Champions Day is set for Feb. 19. 

 “Over the past three years, we have received tremendous support from all of the stakeholders in Texas and the horseplayers have responded to the improved racing product,” said Frank Hopf, who was recently promoted to assistant general manager of Sam Houston. “The goal is to build on the positives from 2021 and continue to enhance Texas racing." 

James Leatherman is the racing secretary at Sam Houston. Stall applications are due Nov. 3. Sam Houston opens its barn area Dec. 3 and training starts Dec. 6.