Zia Park: Gold Medal Dancer tops rescheduled Oaks

An untimely winter blast put seven of Zia Park’s biggest stakes on hold last weekend, but the show will go on on Wednesday. The Hobbs, N.M., track has taken the major races lost Saturday and Sunday and put them on a single card that now boasts $1.1 million in stakes purses. The program is led by the inaugural $300,000 Zia Park Oaks and gets under way at 12:15 p.m. Mountain. Forecasters are calling for mostly sunny skies and highs in the 50s.

It’s a welcome change from last Saturday, when Zia racing canceled after the first race. Freezing rains enveloped the area, and while officials said the surface handled the temperatures, they called off the card after the jockeys felt it was too cold to continue. Zia also canceled Sunday’s card of five Thoroughbred stakes due to anticipated snow. The track ended up being hit with freezing rain and snow Sunday, said Fred Hutton, director of racing operations for Zia.

“Obviously, you don’t want to be right in that situation, but in the framework of what was safest for all involved, we unfortunately made the right call,” he said.

Hutton said the stakes from both days, including two Quarter Horse stakes from Saturday, were moved to Wednesday as originally drawn.

The Oaks, which goes as the eighth race, was created with the hope of garnering Zia its first graded Thoroughbred stakes. The 1 1/16-mile race drew nine entrants, including Southern California shippers Oscar Party and Unusual Way.

But it is the Oklahoma-based Gold Medal Dancer who could go off as the favorite following a tenacious effort in the $200,000 Remington Park Oaks. She was second by a nose after a lively pace duel. The loss was a tough one for Donnie Von Hemel, who trains Gold Medal Dancer for Pin Oak Stable.

“Any finish that close, it’s very painful when it happens,” Von Hemel said. “But when you reflect on it, she ran an amazing race and was just unlucky at the finish.”

Since that race, Gold Medal Dancer has thrived, Von Hemel said, and among her works is a five-furlong bullet in 58.80 seconds Nov. 11. She arrived in Hobbs late last week and has been holding her own during the temperature swing.

“She’s eating well and bouncing around the shedrow,” said Von Hemel, who has given the mount to Luis Quinonez.

Oscar Party, who in July topped the Del Mar paddock sale at $510,000, is returning to dirt after finishing fifth in the Grade 3 Autumn Miss on turf at Santa Anita on Oct. 26.

“The last race, she got stopped a couple of times,” trainer Jim Cassidy said.

Cassidy is looking forward to getting Oscar Party back on dirt, a surface over which she finished second in the Grade 2 Indiana Oaks on Oct. 5. It was a rare main-track start for the filly, who earned a career-high Beyer of 91.

Unusual Way, a three-time stakes winner, is back in New Mexico after finishing second in the $200,000 Sunland Park Oaks. She will be ridden by Edwin Maldonado.

“She’s always forwardly placed,” trainer Jeff Bonde said.

The Oaks is to be broadcast on HRTV and the radio network HRRN. Hutton said the Thoroughbred stakes Wednesday are scheduled to be simulcast to California.

Broadway Empire returns

Broadway Empire, last seen pressing a determined Goldencents in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, faces six other three-year-olds Wednesday in the Zia Derby. The chief threats in the 1 1/16-mile race appear to be Carve, third in the Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby, and Show Some Magic, runner-up in the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Park Derby.

Broadway Empire, winner of both the Oklahoma Derby and Grade 3 Canadian Derby, was ninth in the Dirt Mile after pushing eventual winner Goldencents through a half-mile in 44.60 seconds. He could set the pace Wednesday, or track Show Some Magic. Geovanni Franco rides.

“We’re going to leave it in the hands of Franco,” trainer Robertino Diodoro said.

The field includes Real Heat, a full brother to Mensa Heat, a multiple stakes winner of more than $500,000.

◗ Ol Winedrinker Who set a track record for 1 1/16 miles last out at Zia, and that will make him one of the top contenders in the $150,000 Distance Championship, a 1 1/8-mile race that drew Grade 1 winner Jaycito.

◗ Jaws n’ Paws will be seeking the 16th win of her 33-race career in the $55,000 Zia Park Distaff, a six-furlong race for fillies and mares which includes the 4-for-5 Winter Book.

◗ That’s the Idea, who has won her three starts by a combined 25 lengths, will take on males in the $140,000 Eddy County, a one-mile race for New Mexico-breds.

◗ Prospect to the Top will be seeking his fifth straight win and a berth into the Grade 1, $750,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos in the $150,000 Zia Park Distance Championship for Quarter Horses