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New Mexico Race Dates Set For 2023
The New Mexico Racing Commission at its August meeting set the state’s race dates for 2023
The New Mexico racing year gets underway with a 55-day meet at Sunland Park from December 30-April 2. Racing at Sunland Park will be conducted on a Friday- through-Sunday and Tuesday schedule.
The Sunland Park meet will be followed by a 21-day season at SunRay Park in Farmington, opening April 7 and running through May 21. Racing at SunRay will be conducted three days a week on a Friday- through-Sunday schedule.
Ruidoso Downs will conduct a 46-day season from May 26-September 4. Racing at Ruidoso will be conducted on a Friday-through-Sunday schedule, with special holiday racing set for Memorial Day Monday, May 29, and Labor Day Monday, September 4.
The New Mexico State Fair at The Downs at Albuquerque will conduct a 17-day meet from September 1-24. This will be followed by a 19-day meet at The Downs at Albuquerque from September 27-October 29. The Downs’ meet will be conducted on a Friday-through- Sunday and Wednesday schedule.
The 2023 New Mexico racing calendar concludes with a 30-day meet at Zia Park in Hobbs, opening November 3 and running through December 20. Zia Park will conduct racing primarily on a Saturday-through- Tuesday schedule, with additional racing set for opening-day Friday, November 3, and closing-day Wednesday, December 20.
New Mexico-Bred Filly Slammed Wins At Del Mar
Slammed, a registered New Mexico-bred 4-year-old daughter of the Bernardini stallion Marking owned by Fincher Racing LLC, Brad King, and Suzanne Kirby, won a 6-furlong, $84,500 allowance-optional claiming ($80,000) at Del Mar on July 28.
Trained by Todd Fincher and ridden by Drayden Van Dyke, Slammed defeated Grace Adler by a clear 5 1/4 lengths while covering her 6-furlong trip in 1:08.55. The filly was making her first start since February 6, when she scored a 1 1/2-length victory in the 6-furlong, $100,000 La Coneja Stakes (R) for New Mexico-bred fillies and mares at Sunland Park.
“She’s probably the best mare I’ve ever trained,” Fincher told Steve Andersen
of Daily Racing Form. “She can run five furlongs or a mile and a sixteenth.
”I think she’s that good,” the trainer added. “I was hoping she’d win the race.”
Slammed was bred by Brad King and Todd Fincher, and she is out of Hennesey Smash, a multiple New Mexico-bred stakes- winning Roll Hennessy Roll mare. The filly is a half-sister to multiple New Mexico-
bred stakes winner Roll On Diabolical. Slammed has won eight of 10 starts
-- including five New Mexico-bred stakes -- and she has earned $348,005.
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