Ruidoso: Fincher and Ochoa win three apiece at Zia Festival

Trainer Todd Fincher and jockey Juan Ochoa each won three stakes on the $1.1 million Zia Festival of New Mexico-bred races at Ruidoso Downs on Sunday.

The card was one of the richest of the meet and it featured six stakes for Thoroughbreds and four for Quarter Horses.

Fincher and Ochoa teamed together for two of their winners, taking the $50,000 Starlet with Comicsperfection ($3.80) and the $50,000 Lincoln Handicap with Fan’s Cat ($4.60). The races were back to back. Comicsperfection wired the field for a six-length win in her race, which was a 5 1/2-furlong sprint for 3-year-old fillies, while Fan’s Cat was always close to the pace when she defeated fellow filly and mare sprinters by 2 1/2 lengths Sunday.

Ochoa then came back and won his third straight race on the program in the $50,000 Road Runner, when he guided Thenew Normal ($24) to a front-running, 1 3/4-length win in the 5 1/2-furlong race for 3-year-olds for trainer Weston Martin.

Fincher’s other winner on the card came with Desert Road ($8.20) in the $149,250 Rio Grande Senor Futurity. The horse tracked the pace in the 5 1/2-furlong race and went on to a 3 1/4-length win over That’s Who. Ricardo Jaime was aboard Desert Road.

In the $156,290 Rio Grande Senorita Futurity, Our Flying Angel ($3) backed up her dominant trial win with a clear score in the 5 1/2-furlong finale. She wired the field by 2 1/4 lengths under jockey Jimmy Coates. Our Flying Angel is trained by Ross Amestoy. She had won her trial by 11 lengths in her career debut July 17.

Lota Talent ($35.80) gave trainer Joel Marr his fifth consecutive Land of Enchantment victory when he drove to a three-quarter-length win in the $50,000 race for 3-year-olds and up at 7 1/2 furlongs. Fullofenergy, another Marr trainee who had won the Land of Enchantment the past four years, finished ninth in what was his first start since September 2010. Casey Lambert rode Lota Talent.

Call Me a Blazn Chic ($12.40) won the richest race on the card, the $384,031 Zia Futurity for Quarter Horses, by a neck. Alonso Rivera was aboard for trainer Roberto Sanchez.