Lone Star Park concluded its 30th Spring Thoroughbred racing season July 12 and reported a daily average of $251,403 in live ontrack handle and a daily average of $170,053 in export handle over the 41-day meet, which were both increases over 2025 figures by 2% and 4%, respectively. Attendance for the meet increased by 5% over 2025. Notably, handle and attendance increased for the third consecutive year.
"The handle and attendance figures are encouraging, and we are proud of these results" said Merlinda Fleming, vice president of operations for Lone Star Park.
Season Highlights
The highlight of the meet was Lone Star Million Day on Memorial Day, generating the highest handle total of the meet of $1,506,217 with $1,039,306 of that wagered ontrack from the 6,511 fans in attendance. That ontrack handle total was the highest amount wagered ontrack since the Lone Star Million Day card of 21 years ago in 2005. The Summer Turf Festival, coupled with a Dollar Day promotion June 27 brought the most fans to the Grand Prairie track with an attendance of 13,843.
"The Dallas-Fort Worth Metro area continues to show up and support Lone Star Park," said Brandon Leigh, director of marketing and player development for Lone Star Park. "These numbers are indicative of the quality of our entertainment product in an extremely competitive market. We look for this momentum to continue into our upcoming Fall Quarter Horse season and next year's Thoroughbred season."
Season Leaders
Stewart Elliott had another solid season and ended the meet with 33 wins, taking the honors of Leading Jockey for his fourth time at Lone Star Park. His other Leading Jockey titles came in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
"This is great," said Elliott and "to have had the success I have had is awesome."
The veteran jockey is approaching a milestone of 6,000 career victories.
The meet ended with Erin Gaarz being named leading owner for the first time at Lone Star Park. She ended the meet with a total of 15 wins.
"It feels great to win," said Gaarz, but was quick to give credit to trainer Abel Ramirez-Rodriguez "who does all the work and makes this possible for me."
Heading into the final race day of the meet, the title of leading trainer had already been locked up by Hall of Famer and Lone Star Park's all-time leading trainer Steve Asmussen, who finished the 2026 meet with a total of 37 wins. This is the 19th time that Asmussen has been honored as the meet's leading trainer.
This press release has been edited for content and style by BloodHorse Staff.
