Lone Star: Worldventurer runs for new owner in Texas Stallion Stakes

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Worldventurer won’t have to face the Preakness-bound Departing on Saturday, when he returns to the restricted ranks for a division of the $75,000 Texas Stallion Stakes at Lone Star Park. The one-mile race for 3-year-old colts and geldings by eligible sires is one of three stakes on the card. The program also features a $75,000 fillies division of the Stallion Stakes and the $50,000 Lane’s End Stallion Scholarship for fillies and mares bred in Texas.

Worldventurer raced against Departing in the $50,000 Texas Heritage at Sam Houston on March 2, finishing third to the eventual Illinois Derby winner. Worldventurer, a three-time stakes winner, has not raced since.

“He does have a little bit of a layoff,” said Bret Calhoun, who trains Worldventurer. “That was pretty much by design.”

Calhoun said the Stallion Stakes has long been a goal for Worldventurer, and following a busy campaign that included some races for which he had to ship, the decision was made to freshen the horse. Calhoun also noted that since his last start, Worldventurer has changed hands, having been purchased at auction by Peter Redekop.

Worldventurer topped a Fasig-Tipton Texas sale at Lone Star Park on April 3, bringing $150,000 during a horses of racing age session. Calhoun trained Worldventurer up to the sale, and the horse remained with him following the purchase by Redekop.

Worldventurer will break from post 3 on Saturday, under Cliff Berry.

“I think he can be placed wherever he needs to be,” Calhoun said. “He can be up closer, or back off it.

“I think the mile suits him very well.”

Worldventurer is part of a five-horse field that also includes the stakes-placed runners Breaththefire and Meme Jo.

Calhoun also has a leading contender in the fillies division in Tastefullyxcessive, who is seeking her first stakes win after placing in back-to-back Stallion Stakes divisions at Retama Park and Sam Houston. She will be making her third start off a layoff Saturday.

“We had a little bad luck early in the spring,” Calhoun said. “We had her in a seven-eighths stakes at Houston, and she colicked after Lasix and we had to scratch her. So, she got behind.”

Tastefullyxcessive is now back on track, and enters Saturday’s race off a runner-up finish in an open-company allowance at a mile at Lone Star on April 27.

“She came back and ran a very good race,” Calhoun said. “She took the worst of it. She was inside and had a horse outside pressing her the whole way.”

Calhoun also noted the winner, Sister Ginger, was a stakes winner earlier this year at Oaklawn.

Berry has the mount on Tastefullyxcessive, who races for her breeder, Clarence Scharbauer Jr.

Others set to start include Makeshift, winner of a Stallion Stakes division over Tastefullyxcessive, and Open Summary, whose full sister, Perfect Meadow, runs later on the card in the Lane’s End.

Lasting Bubbles is the one to catch in the Lane’s End, which will be run over 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf. She is seeking her third straight win, and is a candidate to control the pace off a front-running score in the $50,000 JEH Stallion Station at 6 1/2 furlongs at Lone Star on April 13.