From the TTA website:
Open Forum offspring sweep both divisions of Texas Stallion Stakes at Lone Star Park
5/13/2006
Open Meadows
(Photo by Denis Blake)
In the span of less than 30 minutes on May 13, Open Forum added two news stakes winners to his record as Upstream and Open Meadows captured divisions of the Texas Stallion Stakes at Lone Star Park.
In the $125,000 Got Koko division for fillies, Tom Durant’s homebred Open Meadows drew clear to win by 2 ¾ lengths in her two-turn debut. The 3-year-old filly broke her maiden in a six-furlong sprint in her last outing. She covered the 1 1/16-mile distance in 1:47.52 with Casey Lambert in the irons for trainer Jack Bruner.
Shesabigcat, a daughter of Magic Cat, took second in front of the Truluck filly Little Rumble. Final Trick, last year’s Texas Champion 2-Year-Old Filly, checked in fourth followed by Fly Francie Fly, Kathy’s Rocket, She’s Open Minded, Wild Texas Knights, Larisaanna, Cats Legend and Lady Prospector.
Upstream
(Photo by Denis Blake)
Colts and geldings competed in the $125,000 Stymie division, and it was William S. Farish’s homebred Upstream who prevailed by three parts of a length. Farish also owns Open Forum and Lane’s End Texas near Hempstead, where the stallion stands for a $5,000 fee. Upstream, who had placed in two other divisions of the Texas Stallion Stakes, pushed his earnings to $139,370 with the victory. The colt clocked the distance in 1:46.29. Luis Quinonez was the winning rider for trainer Steve Asmussen.
I found it interesting what unfolded in the "Got Koko" or Fillies Div. There were many 'name' Tx-bred fillies from last year's juvenile campaigns in the line-up. I kind of had to agree with the one handicapping analyst on HRTV who said afterward (to explain his pick's poor finish) that he'd looked for a horse with closing speed to finish strong when all the speed horses in this race wore themselves out. However, in reality when that front end speed didn't develop, there was only one horse in the race who even seemed capable (I took that to mean "bred") to go the extra 1/16th of a mile. It was rather a sad commentary on our commercial focus for fast 2YO's that all but one of them was flagging behind with tongues lolling at the mile marker as OPEN MEADOWS galloped comfortabally across the finish line many lengths ahead. The "boys" division seemed a bit better of a race in the final furlongs.