Page 88 - New Mexico Winter 2021

RACING NEWS
SUNLAND PARK MEET OPENS DEC. 31
Sunland Park Racetrack in southeastern New Mexico will open its 55-day Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse meet on Friday, December 31.
Sunland Park’s opening-day program will mark the track’s first live racing since the COVID-19 pandemic ended its 2019-20 season abruptly on March 17, 2020. Track management canceled the 2020-21 season due to concerns about the pandemic.
Sunland Park’s meet runs through Sunday, April 3, and will offer live racing on a Friday- through-Sunday and Tuesday schedule. First post time every day will be 12:25 (Mountain).
Sunland Park officials expect to pay $15 million in purses, or about $250,000 per day.
The track’s signature Thoroughbred race, the 11/8-mile, $500,000 Sunland Derby (G3) will be run on Sunday, March 27,
and will offer 50 qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby (G1) at Churchill Downs. Other stakes on March 27 will include the 1 1/16-mile, $300,000 Sunland Park Derby for 3-year-old fillies, which will offer 50 qualifying points for the Kentucky Oaks (G1) at Churchill Downs, and the $250,000 New Mexico Breeders’ Oaks (R) for state- bred sophomore fillies and $250,000 New Mexico Breeders’ Derby (R) for state-bred 3-year-olds.
Both the Sunland Derby and Sunland Park Oaks will be Lasix-free stakes.
Sunland Derby Day annually draws the track’s largest attendance of its season. The 2019 Sunland Derby Day program recorded an all-time state record handle of more than $4.8 million.
Sunland Park’s Quarter Horse stakes schedule is topped by the 440-yard, $350,000 Championship at Sunland Park (G1) on Sunday, January 2. The meet’s richest state-bred Quarter Horse stakes, the 300-yard, $250,000-est. New Mexican Spring Futurity (RG2), is scheduled for closing day, April 3.
For more information on Sunland Park’s race meet, visit the track’s website at www. sunland-park.com.
86 New Mexico Horse Breeder
Ruidos Downs Photo