Sunland meet begins and ends a bit later

The 2018-19 meet at Sunland Park is starting and ending about two and a half weeks later than usual. The 75-date meet, the 60th season for the New Mexico track, opens Friday and wraps on May 5, the day after the Kentucky Derby.

“We wanted to run live during the Kentucky Derby,” said Dustin Dix, director of racing operations for Sunland. “It’s a natural tie in.

“We’ve talked about it for a number of years.”

Sunland’s richest offering, the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby on March 24 awards 50 Kentucky Derby points to the winner.

Back in 2009, the 1 1/8-mile stakes produced a Kentucky Derby winner in Mine That Bird. Dix said he is hoping to bring Mine That Bird in for an appearance at Sunland on the 10th anniversary of his Derby win.

Dix said that aside from the Kentucky Derby simulcast May 4, there were a few other reasons to restructure the meet. The season now ends on Cinco De Mayo, which Dix said is a popular celebration in the area. Dix added that Sunland also would be trading some winter days for spring days and would be able to have later races for 2-year-old Quarter Horses.

The Sunland Derby tops a $5 million stakes schedule and a card of seven stakes worth more than $1.5 million. The card includes the $200,000 Sunland Park Oaks, which is a points race for the Kentucky Oaks. Last year, handle on the card from all sources reached nearly $4.3 million, which was a state record, according to Sunland.

Preps for the Sunland Derby and Sunland Oaks are being bundled on the same cards this year, with races on Jan. 27 and Feb. 24.

Other highlights of the stakes schedule include the Grade 1, $350,000 Championship at Sunland on Dec. 30 – a Quarter Horse race that has drawn two-time world champion Jessies First Down – and the $150,000 Sunland Park Handicap at 1 1/8 miles on May 4.

Purses for the meet are projected to average $228,000 a program, similar to last meet, Dix said. The track, which has 725 slot machines, has lured some new faces. Dix said they include trainers Greg Tracy and Nate Williams and jockeys Shane Laviolette, Irwin Rosendo, and Santiago Gonzalez.

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Gerald Richards has been named racing secretary for Sunland. He also is the racing secretary at the Downs at Albuquerque. Johnnie Jamison has been named track superintendent and head starter for Sunland. Jamison served as the track superintendent for Sunland from 1997-2000.

Sunland will race Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Tuesdays. First post is 12:30 p.m. Mountain.

Sunland conducted its first meet in 1959.