Forest Mouse comes off layoff in Premiere Cup

Forest Mouse, Alsono, and Southern California import Nextdoorneighbor make for an interesting renewal of the $55,000 Premiere Cup Handicap on Sunday at Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M. The race is the first stakes of the 56-date mixed meet for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses that begins Saturday. The season runs through Dec. 15.

Forest Mouse, a seven-time stakes winner who has earned $600,977, will be making his first start since running second in the Veterans Stakes at Zia in November 2014. Alsono has become a multiple stakes winner against Quarter Horses since his last appearance in Hobbs, where he ran sixth in last year’s Zia Park Derby. Nextdoorneighbor was claimed for $25,000 on Aug. 8 at Del Mar. He won that day for the sixth time in his last eight starts.

The Premiere Cup is part of a 33-race, $4 million stakes schedule at this meet, with 19 of those stakes for Thoroughbreds. The richest race on the calendar is the $300,000 Zia Park Oaks, which will anchor the third annual Land of Enchantment program Nov. 25. The card will feature eight stakes worth $1.2 million in all, including the $200,000 Zia Park Derby and $150,000 Zia Park Championship at 1 1/8 miles.

The $100,000 Zia Park Sprint, which is a season-ending goal for some of the starters in the Premiere Cup, has been added to the Land of Enchantment lineup this year, said Fred Hutton, director of racing for Zia. He also said the purse for the Zia Park Distaff on the same card was boosted by $25,000 to $100,000.

“The Land of Enchantment card will be the day before Thanksgiving again because the last two years, it’s been the record and second-highest parimutuel handle for Zia,” said Hutton. “We found our niche on that day.”

Hutton said Zia’s sister track, Penn National, also will put on a number of stakes Nov. 25.

“We’re kind of the cat’s meow for simulcast the day before Thanksgiving,” he said.

Among the other high points of the stakes schedule is the $2 million New Mexico Cup card of 12 statebred stakes Nov. 1.

Hutton said Zia’s purses at this meet are projected to average $265,000 a program. The track, which operates a casino with 750 slot machines, is coming off a year in which it experienced a 23 percent increase in handle on its live races. An average of $536,316 a day was bet on Zia’s races from all sources, compared with $435,229 a day in 2013.

Jockey Alfredo Juarez Jr., who won a record 63 races last meet, is back for the new meet. Trainer Justin Evans, who has won the past three training titles at Zia, also returns.

Tom Harris will be the new voice of Zia. He comes to the track from Retama Park. Harris will continue to call races at Sam Houston, which shares common ownership with Zia.

Zia will race Saturdays through Tuesdays most weeks, and Hutton said plans are to start experimenting with straight Thoroughbred cards Mondays and Tuesdays next month.