Risen Star Stakes was run in two divisions in 1989, 1993 & 1995. The 2006 race was held at Louisiana Downs. Risen Star Stakes The Risen Star Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually in February at the Fair Grounds Race Course. It is open to three-year-old horses and is raced over a distance of one and one-sixteenth miles on the dirt. A Grade II event, it currently offers a purse of $400,000. The race is the major prep race to the Louisiana Derby and one of many prep race preparing colts for the Kentucky Derby and the Triple Crown. The
American Quarter Horse hence the nickname. Horses listed in the appendix may be entered in competition, but offspring are not initially eligible for full AQHA registration. If the Appendix horse meets certain conformational criteria and is shown or raced successfully in sanctioned AQHA events, the horse can earn its way from the appendix into the permanent studbook, making its offspring eligible for AQHA registration. Since Quarter Horse/Thoroughbred crosses continue to enter the official registry of the American Quarter Horse breed, this creates a continual gene flow from the Thoroughbred breed into the American Quarter Horse breed, which has altered many of the characteristics