Page 30 - New Mexico Horse Breeders 2019 Stallion Register

The 2018 New Mexico racing season is winding to a close, so let’s take a look back at the highlights.
Sunland Park Racetrack, located directly across the border of El Paso, Texas, in southern New Mexico, ended its 72-day season on April 17. Once again, the highlight of the track’s 2017-18 season was Sunland Derby Day, March 25, which featured seven Thoroughbred stakes on the 12-race card, topped by its signature race, the 1 1/8-mile, $800,000 Sunland Derby (G3).
Sunland Park generally draws its largest on-track crowed on Sunland Derby Day, and this year was no exception, as 16,717 attended the races that day. A total of $4,278,344
was wagered on the dozen races, of which $3,947,381 was bet off track. The total handle on Sunland Derby Day marked a substantial 35 percent increase over the $3,163,994 handled on the track’s 10-race Sunland Derby Day program in 2017.
Local connections won the Sunland Derby, as Joe Peacock’s Runaway Ghost rallied to win the Triple Crown prep by 2 3/4 lengths. A homebred Ghostzapper colt out of the multiple New Mexico-bred stakes-winning Desert God mare Rose’s Desert, Runaway Ghost was ridden by Tracy Hebert for trainer Todd Fincher.
The colt missed the 1 1/4-mile, $2-million Kentucky Derby (G1) at Churchill Downs due to a minor shin fracture.
Local connections also won the 1 1/16-mile, $200,000 Sunland Park Oaks for 3-year-old fillies, a major regional prep for the Kentucky Oaks (G1) at Churchill Downs. Blamed, a Maryland-bred daughter of Blame trained by Joel Marr for owner Cleber J. Massey, scored a 6 1/4 length victory as the 2-5 favorite. Blamed was missed the Kentucky Oaks due to a hairline fracture in her right hind pastern.
Sunland Derby Day also featured three $100,000 stakes restricted to New Mexico- bred Thoroughbreds. Dale Taylor’s Hennessy Express scored a wire-to-wire victory in the 1
1/16-mile New Mexico Breeders’ Oaks (R) for state-bred sophomore fillies. Blazing Navarone, a bay gelding owned by George E. Coleman and Henry Dominguez, won the 1 1/16-mile New Mexico Breeders’ Derby (R) for 3-year- olds as the 1-5 favorite, and Maurcenia Cross’ G M Gage rallied at odds of 11-1 to win the 1-mile & 70-yard New Mexico State University Handicap (R) for 4-year-olds and older.
On the Quarter Horse side of the Sunland Park meet, the track offered a stakes-record $396,412 purse for its richest sprint race, the 300-yard, $396,412 New Mexican Spring Futurity (RG2) for state-bred 2-year-olds. Zee James, a homebred daughter of Jesse James Jr campaigned by Robert M. Driggers and Ben Lee Ivey and trained by Wes Giles, banked the $186,314 winner’s share of the purse.
New Mexico’s racing action moved to SunRay Park Racetrack in Farmington for the track’s scheduled 33-day season, which started April 21. SunRay’s one six-figure race, the 350-yard, $120,652 New Mexico Breeders’ Futurity (RG3) for state-bred 2-year-olds, was won by Saul. A homebred gray son of Sign
To Be A Runaway, Saul was trained by Wes Giles and earned the $56,706 winner’s share of the purse for owners Jill B. Giles, Megan Hourigan, and Cory Taylor.
SunRay Park’s 2018 season was scheduled to end on June 17. However, adverse track conditions caused by a morning rainstorm caused SunRay to cancel the last seven races that day, including its richest Thoroughbred race, the 1 1/8-mile, $75,000 San Juan County Commissioners’ Handicap. Also, one of the track’s premier Quarter Horse stakes, the 350- yard, $96,590 Four Corners Futurity, was moved to Albuquerque Downs and run on July 1.
Historic Ruidoso Downs Racetrack opened its 47-day season in the mountains of southern New Mexico on May 25. Despite racing fewer days in 2018, the track reported a 10-percent increase in total handle over its 2017 season, which ran 52 days.
By Michael Cusortelli
Ruidoso Downs’ meet featured the annual Zia Festival, which showcases state-bred Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing and locally produced products, including food
and art. This year’s Zia Festival races were
held on Sunday, July 29, and offered a total
of $950,617 in purses for nine stakes, five for New Mexico-bred Thoroughbreds and four for state-bred Quarter Horses, up 6 percent from $896,825 in 2017.
Ruidoso Downs management reported
Zia Festival Day attendance at 4,933, and a total of $488,544 was wagered on the 10-race program, of which $245,967 was bet on track and $242,577 was wagered off track. Jess Fire Chick, a homebred daughter of Jess A Chicks campaigned by Mike Abraham and Paul Blanchard and trained by Wes Giles, won the afternoon’s richest race, the 400-yard, $409,680 Zia Futurity (RG1).
The New Mexico Horse Breeders’ Association held its second annual “Town Hall” meeting on July 28, in conjunction with Zia Festival weekend. The meeting was held at the Ruidoso Horse Sale Pavilion adjacent to the racetrack, and it was moderated by NMHBA president Ralph W. Vincent of Albuquerque. The meeting featured a discussion of issues affecting the state’s racing industry, including the license for a sixth racino, and the future of advanced deposit wagering (ADW) and legal sports wagering in New Mexico.
Ruidoso Downs ended its first season under the management of All American Ruidoso Downs and general manager Jeff True on Labor Day weekend. The track drew 10,428 fans for its Sept. 2 program which featured the 45th running of the Grade 1, 440-yard All American Derby, and 13,318 fans attended the closing day program, which featured the 60th running of the All American Futurity, Quarter Horse racing’s richest and most prestigious race.
Two lucrative New Mexico-bred Thoroughbred stakes were also run on closing weekend: the Sept. 2, $135,378 Rio Grande
28 New Mexico Horse Breeder
YEAR IN REVIEW