Page 67 - NMHBA Summer 2017

The new hotel at Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino opened in April.
Esgar Ramirez was named Sunland Park’s leading Quarter Horse jockey with 26 wins
Ry Eikleberry was name Sunland Park’s leading Thoroughbred jockey with 65 wins
Mauro Salcedo, who won 24 races from 114 mounts and led all jockeys in mount earnings at $651,556.
Jose Luis Muela was Sunland Park’s leading Quarter Horse trainer with nine wins from 38 starters, one more than runners-up Adam Tapia (eight winners from 41 starters), Cynthia Gonzalez, (eight winners from 43 starters), and Wes Giles (eight winners from 62 starters). Gonzalez topped all trainers in purse earnings at $348,516.
Sunland Park’s leading Quarter Horse owner, Eloy Humberto Pena, won five races from 10 starters, two more than runners-up By By JJ LLC of El Paso, Texas (four wins from five starters) and Yaneth Cabrera (four wins from 11 starters). By By JJ LLC was the meet’s leading Quarter Horse owner in purse earnings with $204,504.
Sunland Park’s richest and most prestigious Thoroughbred race, the 1 1/8-mile, $800,000 Sunland Derby (G3) on March 26, was won by the Kentucky- bred Street Boss colt Hence. A homebred trained by ridden by Juarez for owner Calumet Farm and trainer Steve Asmussen, Hence covered 9 furlongs in 1:48.10 and his winning margin was 1 1/2 lengths
from Judge Lanier Racing’s Conquest Mo Money. The colt earned the $400,000 winner’s share of the Sunland Derby purse and 50 qualifying points for the May 6, $2-million Kentucky Derby (G1), the first leg of Thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown, at Churchill Downs.
Sunland Derby Day, which featured a total of seven Thoroughbred stakes, also drew 16,039 fans on-track, the meet’s largest crowd of the season. Sunland Derby Day also drew the meet’s highest one-day handle, $3,163,994, of which $300,783 was wagered on-track. The Sunland Derby itself drew a handle of $1,060,571 in the win-place-show, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, and super high 5 pools.
“This race has really grown in popularity since it became graded (in 2013),” Dix said. “This was the first year that we had to exclude horses whose connections wanted to enter.”
Enrique Barrera’s Moneys A Maker,
a gray son of Sixes Royal trained by Cynthia Gonzalez, won the meet’s richest Quarter Horse stakes, the $362,987 New Mexican Spring Futurity (RG2) for state- bred juveniles on April 8. The gelding, who was bred by Dee Mooring and Jaime Cervantes, covered 300 yards in :15.202 and banked the $170,604 winner’s share of the purse.
By Michael Cusortelli
According to figures provided by the track, Sunland Park’s per-race handle reached a track-record $74,685.
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