Conally BC Turf
$200.000 For Four Years Olds And Upward
1 1/2 Miles – Turf
Sam Houston Race Park – January 24, 2026
This will be the nineteenth time that the Connally BC Turf has been run and last year Chagrin Falls used this race to kick off his BC Turf winning season that showed him taking home over $3.000.000 in purse money in his 2025 season. Last year the Connally was a G3 event but it has lost its graded status for 2026 while maintaining its $200.000 purse level. That prize has drawn a field of eleven and although Chagrin Falls is still in training he is skipping the Connally this year and has chosen instead to kick off 2026 in Florida in the lucrative and prestigious Pegasus. The eleven who are seeking to use the Conally as a springboard to their own stellar season are prepped and ready to go.
1. Negril (Winning Link Stable/A. Jimenez) Very lightly raced four year old who has hit the board in five of his six career starts. He has not yet won a stakes race but he was second and third in his two graded stakes efforts which were his last two starts. He has never gone beyond nine furlongs so this will be a first test outside of his age group and at the distance but he has been brought along carefully and has been competitive at every asking so far.
2. Central Hawkes Bay (Czech Out Farms/D.L. Parker) He was claimed out of a Saratoga marathon turf event that he won by six lengths. He immediately won a Churchill open allowance race before faltering a bit when tested in the G3 Ft Lauderdale at the end of the season. He won the American Derby as a three year old but has not duplicated that kind of effort in stakes company since. At his best when he can use his speed. There seems to be limited speed in the field so he may have a favorable pace scenario to work with.
3. Lord Cherokee (Threshold/A. Fresu) A win in this race would put this seven year old veteran over $1.000.000 in earnings. 2025 was not his best year. He did not win a stakes race and won only $93.000. However, he was a close second in his final start last season, the G3 Valedictory Stakes, where he earned a triple digit SRF speed figure. That last sharp effort along with his most recent scorching public work say that he might have regained his best form.
4. Saint George (Luz International/L.J. Luzzi) Has had success running on the grass winning three of his seven starts on the surface. None of those previous races were in stakes company though. He has one stakes start in his sixteen race career and he did hit the board in that race. He was gelded last July and has not posted a win since although he has been competitive in his three starts since. He had a tightener start at the beginning of the year where he was a closing second. Trainer gives him his first grass start for this barn and is asking him to go a distance he has never approached before against stakes company. It’s a lot to ask but since being claimed for $30.000 a year ago Saint George has hit the board in five of six starts and cashed a check in the other so the trainer has handled him well.
5. Dragon (Nakamura Stables/A.A. Gallardo) How weird it is that Saint George draws right inside of a horse named Dragon. I don’t know what the odds are but it has to be a sign of some sort. Definitely a hunch exacta play! Seriously, what are the odds? Dragon was on the Derby trail at this time last year eventually finishing eighteenth in that contest. Making the Derby field is itself an accomplishment but he found his best success when moved to the grass for his last four starts of 2025. He won three of those four starts and that included two stakes wins. His works are sharp and he seems poised to be hard for anyone to slay even by the spookily named saint to his inside.
6. Carve (Broken Spoke Stables/V. Espinoza) He has won four of his ten lifetime starts and is stakes placed. He was given a few months off after a second place stakes effort at Del Mar and then resurfaced in December where he ran an uncharacteristically dull sixth in the Tenacious. Was that just a matter of having to dust off the cobwebs? He has not had a public workout since that effort so it is hard to tell where he is at. This will be his first start on the grass. He only has a couple of works on the grass but those are ancient history and they don’t exactly scream that he might be a turf savant. He is an enigma in this one that could surprise but is hard to make a case for.
7. King Luka (Night Rider Stables/J.L. Alvarez) Eight year old veteran who has made thirty-six starts. He has found the winners circle in three of those races but the good news is that one of those wins was in the prestigious G1 Makers Mark Mile at Keeneland. The bad news is that his G1 win was the last time they hung the flowers on him and that win was almost two years ago. He was given a couple of months to regroup after a poor effort in a $50.000 claiming race on dirt in October. He came back in December in a protected optional claimer on the grass where he was a fast closing second after showing some blazing speed in morning works. He has continued working well and his trainer steps him back up into stakes company. Has he found a second wind at age eight?
8. Bigmikesbluedress (Twin Towers Racing/M.J. Sanchez) Do we dare look under the hood to see what is going on with this one? Yes we do. We’re brave that way. Similar to King Luka inside of him he has started in thirty races with three wins. He is a G2 winner however and he nearly took the G1 Fourstardave at Saratoga so can come up with a big one (pun intended?) on any given day. Last season was not a good year where he only managed two seconds in eight starts and only $36.870 in earnings. He is working well and we have not seen him in a race since October. Has the time off refreshed him and will we see a regain of best form? His trainer brings him back at stakes level so this will be a true test to see where his form is at after that break.
9. Sunshine Superman (Barcelona Farms/D. Cabrera) He has won nine of his twenty-two starts and has been first or second in eight of his nine races going long. He has not been worse than second in his last seven races and won his last start by a whopping seven lengths. It is obvious that the longer the race is the better he likes it and he gets a full twelve furlongs to work with here. The last two times he has gone this far on the grass the result has been two triple digit SRF speed figures. Is working like Pegasus in the morning, he breezes faster than most being pushed harder. Coming into his five year old year like he wants to be a superstar.
10. Penal Hockey Party (Maxmillion Farm/F. Wethey Jr.) With over $4.000.000 in earnings he is easily the marquee name in the field. He has raced at the highest level season after season with success and is looking to continue that at age seven. His reputation precedes him but you have to say it has been awhile since he has heard the cheers with his last stakes win coming in the KD Turf Cup in 2024. He was given four months off after a poor effort in the Green Flash at Del Mar and he didn’t fare much better in his comeback when he failed to fire in the Ft. Lauderdale. He has had no public workouts since that race and it is hard to make him a pick off of recent form. Would be nice to see him rebound.
11. Suave (Mo Mentum Farm/E. Valdez-Jiminez) Was graded stakes placed as a two year old but has found it hard to reach that level since having been running mostly in claiming races and changing hands five times since being auctioned by his original owner. He was most recently claimed for $25.000 by Mo Mentum Farm in late December and he makes his first start for his new barn in his first stakes start since the BC Juvenile Turf in 2022. He has been going long on the grass very successfully in recent races although obviously not at the level of competition he will face today. He is one of the two obvious speeds in the field and can be dangerous. He is intriguing based on back class and it will be interesting to see how he fares.
There are three picks for me that I find it hard to choose from: Lord Cherokee, Dragon and Sunshine Superman. All three seem poised for a big effort here but I will put Dragon on top of Sunshine Superman with Lord Cherokee right there with both of them. All eyes are on the big turf even in Florida this weekend but this is a really good field with some very interesting horses that could prove to be the big star at the end of the year as last year’s winner proved.
Categories: STAKES ARTICLES, Ungraded