It could be a big summer for Stay Hot.
The son of Summer Front opened his 4-year-old campaign with a decisive win in the $250,000 Texas Turf Classic last Saturday at Lone Star Park and could make his next start at Del Mar.
Trainer Peter Eurton said Tuesday that Stay Hot would be considered for the Grade 2, $250,000 Eddie Read on July 27 at Del Mar.
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Stay Hot invaded from Santa Anita for the Texas Turf Classic and was scheduled to fly back home to Southern California on Tuesday night. He earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 94 for his win at Lone Star, with the race run over the same 1 1/8-mile distance as the Eddie Read.
“He could run in the Eddie Read,” Eurton said. “That’s coming back in a month. We’ll see how he trains. I haven’t thought about shipping him again. I really don’t want to, to be honest. That gets kind of old quick, especially for horses. [I prefer to] keep him where he’s at.”
Stay Hot set the pace in the Texas Turf Classic and came back in the stretch when headed by Komorebino Omoide. Stay Hot won by a half-length in what was his first start against older horses. It was also his first start since December.
“He showed me he needed the time off, just to recoup and gets his energy,” said Eurton. “He was very sound when I turned him out. I just thought he needed a break to tackle older horses, just to refresh the batteries, so to speak.”
Stay Hot showed a new dimension in his return, racing on the lead after typically bidding from off the pace in his races. Mike Smith was aboard for Exline-Border Racing and the Estate of Brereton Jones.
“He’s trained a whole lot different than he did last year,” Eurton said. “I noticed he has a lot more speed than I would have thought, but I think that was possibly because he was fresh. But he also trained a lot better. He trained with means, so to speak.
“We’ll see where he goes from here. Mike thought he is going to definitely improve off that race. We’ll just have to hopefully spread [his races] out a little bit to keep him as fresh as he was the other day, or thereabouts.”
Stay Hot won his fifth stakes race in the Texas Turf Classic and has now earned more than $600,000.
* Lone Star Park has a special Thursday night card this week, with first post 5 p.m. Central. The track will have the same earlier post Friday night, and following both cards there will be a 20-minute fireworks display.
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