Long layoff a concern for Enchanted Outlaw

Enchanted Outlaw will have to overcome a 2 1/2-month layoff to win his fifth straight race Sunday in the $125,000 New Mexico State University Handicap. He is the 124-pound highweight in the one-mile stakes for older horses bred in New Mexico.

Enchanted Outlaw got serious about racing last September and has since risen from $10,000 claimer to multiple statebred stakes winner.

Despite coming off his two biggest wins - the $191,000 New Mexico Cup Classic on Nov. 8 and the $100,000 Albert Dominguez Memorial on Jan. 3 - Enchanted Outlaw does have his work cut out for him Sunday.

"Two and a half months, they get a little dull," trainer Todd Fincher said. "It's hard to get them to stay on their feet this long. He's doing good, but it's hard to keep him real sharp. We've put a couple of sharp works in him, but there's nothing like a race."

Enchanted Outlaw's last start might have been his best performance to date, said Fincher, who said he was impressed by how strong Enchanted Outlaw came home in the final furlong of the Dominguez. Enchanted Outlaw won by more than four lengths and earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 91.

He will break from post 3 under regular rider Alfredo Juarez Jr.

Others in the nine-horse field include Some Ghost, a multiple stakes winner who is 10 for 33 at Sunland, and Fullofenergy.