Cartels Fortune drew post 5 for Saturday’s 400-yard, $22,000 Merial Texas Distaff Challenge Stakes at Sam Houston Race Park.

© Coady Photography

HOUSTON, TX—APRIL 27, 2015—Cartels Fortune, a stakes-winning 4-year-old daughter of Carters Cartel who won all four of her outs during her sophomore campaign, drew post 5 for Saturday’s 400-yard, $22,000 Merial Texas Distaff Challenge Stakes at Sam Houston Race Park.

Cartels Fortune has earned $106,833 from 10 races for her owner, Rodney J. Verret, who acquired the mare for $30,000 at the 2012 Ruidoso Select Yearling Sale. Trained by Roy Roberts, Cartels Fortune has won six races, including last year’s $126,000 Evangeline Downs Derby.

Patrick Watson has been named to ride Cartels Fortune in the Texas Distaff Challenge. The mare’s 10 opponents include Jerry D. Chapman’s Million Dollar Kiss, a homebred stakes-winning 3-year-old filly by champion Jess Louisiana Blue. Million Dollar Kiss has won three of seven outs and has banked $66,786, and her race record includes a second-place finish to AJs High in last year’s 350-yard, $150,000 John Deere Juvenile Challenge Championship (G1) at Prairie Meadows.

Million Dollar Kiss drew post 3 and will be ridden by Alejandro Medina.

The winner of this race will earn a berth in the Grade 1, $100,000 Merial Distaff Challenge Championship at Lone Star Park later this fall. The complete lineup, in post-position order including jockey and weight assignments--

1. Eye Agree (Rodrigo Vallejo, 125)
2. Lucky Star 123 (Manuel Lara, 125)
3. Million Dollar Kiss (Alejandro Medina, 123)
4. Rock Princess (Ricardo Aguirre, 125)
5. Cartels Fortune (Patrick Watson, 125)
6. Meduzza (Damien Martinez, 123)
7. Countin Gold (Francisco Calderon, 125)
8. Aunti Up (Luis Vivanco, 125)
9. Sweet P (Julio A. Rodriguez, 123)
10. Paint Your Hips (Santos Carrizales, 123)
11. Dont Text That (Jerry Yoakum, 125).