Page 140 - NM Winter 2023

SUNLAND PARK
SUNLAND PARK MEET PREVIEW
The track opens its 55-day season on January 5.
Sunland Park in southeastern New Mexico will open its 2024 race meet on Friday, January
5. The 55-day season will run through April 7
while offering live racing on a Thursday-through- Sunday schedule.
Once again, Sunland Park will host a pair
of stakes that will offer qualifying points to two Grade 1 races at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. The 1 1/8-mile, $600,000 Sunland Derby (G3) for 3-year-olds will be run February 18, about a month earlier than is customary, and it will offer its winner 20 qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby (G1). The Sunland Derby
will be one of 37 races offering Kentucky Derby qualifying points.
The 1 1/16-mile, $300,000 Sunland Park Oaks for 3-year-old fillies will also be run
on February 18 and will offer its winner 20 qualifying points for the Kentucky Oaks (G1). The Sunland Park Oaks will be one of 32 races offering Kentucky Oaks qualifying points.
A total of 22 stakes restricted to registered New Mexico-breds -- 13 for Thoroughbreds and nine for Quarter Horses -- are also included on Sunland Park’s 2024 stakes schedule. The richest state-bred Thoroughbred
stakes will be the 1 1/16-mile, $250,000 New Mexico Breeders’ Derby (R) for 3-year-olds, and the 1 1/16-mile, $250,000 New Mexico Breeders’ Oaks (R) for sophomore fillies.
The 300-yard New Mexican Spring Futurity (RG2) for state-bred 2-year-olds will once again be Sunland Park’s richest New Mexico-bred Quarter Horse stakes with an estimated purse of $350,000.
For more information on the Sunland Park meet, visit the track’s website at www.sunland- park.com and click on the “Racing” link at the top of the homepage.
138 New Mexico Horse Breeder
© Susan Bachelor, Speedhorse