SunRay Park near Farmington, New Mexico, will open its 18-day spring Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse meet with a 12-race program on Friday, April 12. Post time for the first race is set for 1:15 p.m. (MDT).
Friday’s opening-day program is anchored by the 400-yard, $70,000 New Mexico Breeders’ Stakes (RG3), which has drawn an overflow field of 12 state-bred 3-year-old Quarter Horses. The New Mexico Breeders’ Stakes is one of 10 stakes — five for Thoroughbreds and five for Quarter Horses — on the SunRay Park stakes schedule, which will pay out an estimated $1 million in purse money.
The meet’s signature Quarter Horse race, the 350-yard, $250,000-est. New Mexico Breeders’ Futurity (RG3), will be run Saturday, May 18. Last year’s winner of the Breeders’ Futurity, Joel Gutierrez’s Jetting Thru Clouds, earned the winner’s share of a stakes-record $253,689 purse.
SunRay Park’s signature open Quarter Horse futurity, the 350-yard, $175,000-est. Four Corners Futurity, will also be contested on May 18. Last year’s Four Corners Futurity was won by Tempting Barbie, a daughter of AQHA champion Tempting Dash trained by Marco Flores for owner Vista Del Sol Inc.
SunRay Park’s five Thoroughbred stakes include three restricted to New Mexico-breds — the 6 1/2-furlong, $70,000 Russell & Helen Foutz Distaff Stakes (R) for fillies and mares on April 14; the 6 1/2-furlong, $75,000 Jack Cole Stakes (R) for 3-year-olds and older on April 27; and the 6 1/2-furlong, $75,000 Kendrick Stakes (R) for 3-year-olds on May 11.
SunRay Park will offer live racing on a Friday-through-Sunday schedule through closing day, May 19. For more information, including a complete stakes schedule, visit the track’s website at www.sunraygaming.com, and click on the “Live Racing and Simulcast” link at the top of the homepage.