Trials for All American Derby, Oaks will have horsemen watching the clock

Time trials for a pair of major stakes at Ruidoso Downs on Sunday mean there will be two parts of the afternoon when owners and trainers anxiously glance at the tote board after a race to see if a clocking is fast enough to qualify for the finals on Sept. 6.

The first four races are trials for the $421,165 All American Oaks for 3-year-old fillies, a race being run for the first time this year. The final nine races are trials for the $1,077,688 All American Derby.

The 10 fastest finishers from those 440-yard trials, regardless of finishing positions, will advance to the final.

When entries were drawn last weekend, owners and trainers with fillies chose to enter the Oaks or race against males. For decades, Quarter Horse racing has forced fillies to run against males in leading futurities or derbys, a trend that has changed this year at Ruidoso Downs with the development of the Rainbow Oaks in July and the All American Oaks.

For Sunday’s trials, the owners of five fillies opted to try males, and two of those fillies – Fernweh and Hotsempting – are leading contenders to qualify for the All American Derby.

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Fernweh, who won the Ruidoso Futurity in June 2019, was beaten for the first time in her six-race career in the Rainbow Oaks on July 18. Fernweh finished fourth as the 1-2 favorite and was disqualified and placed ninth for causing interference late in the 440-yard race. She won the Remington Park Oklahoma-Bred Derby in April.

Trained by Duke Shults, Fernweh starts in Sunday’s sixth race, the second division of the derby trials.

Hotsempting has been the leading 3-year-old filly at Ruidoso Downs this summer, winning the Ruidoso Derby at 400 yards on June 6 and finishing second by a head to Cers Final Try in the Rainbow Derby at 440 yards on July 18.

Hotsempting, trained by Sergio Ibarra, starts in the ninth race against a field that includes Inaugurator, the winner of the Heritage Place Derby at Remington Park on May 30, and Uncle D, the winner of the 2019 Rainbow Futurity.

Cers Final Try, who was second in the Ruidoso Derby, will be favored to win the seventh race. Later in the program, Mister Riptide will be favored to win the 10th race. Mister Riptide was second in the All American Futurity last September and won his 2020 stakes debut in the Zia Derby against New Mexico-breds on July 25.

Determined One, third in the 2019 All American Futurity, starts in the 13th and final race.

In the All American Oaks trials, the first two finishers of the Rainbow Oaks – Ratification and Valiant Astica – start in the second and third races.