Full Kentucky Derby and Oaks Wagering, Numerous Promotions Set For Ruidoso Downs

RUIDOSO DOWNS, New Mexico (May 1, 2011) – Fans will get as close to the $2,000,000 Kentucky Derby and the $1,000,000 Kentucky Oaks action as they are allowed without being at Churchill Downs by coming to Ruidoso Downs and the Billy The Kid Casino on Friday and Saturday.

Each of the classic races will be simulcast at Ruidoso Downs and Billy The Kid Casino. There will also be special promotions in the Billy The Kid Casino helping to celebrate the 137th running of the Kentucky Derby, the most exciting two minutes in sport.

The Kentucky Oaks, North America’s premier race for 3-year-old fillies, will be contested on Friday and the Kentucky Derby will be run on Saturday. First post time from Churchill Downs on Friday and Saturday is 8:30 a.m. with Billy’s Race Book opening at 8 a.m. The Kentucky Oaks set to run at 3:45 p.m. on Friday with the Kentucky Derby going off at 4:24 p.m. on Saturday.

There will be advanced wagering on Friday for Saturday’s entire Churchill Downs’ card, including the Kentucky Derby.

On Saturday, the Billy The Kid Casino opens at 9 a.m. and the All American Turf Club, with free seating, opens at noon. Derby day promotions include $1,000 in cash prizes, casino promotions, food and drink specials, and a hat contest with $100 to the winner.

Also, a second-chance drawing will be held after the Kentucky Derby. Losing tickets on the Kentucky Derby may be exchanged for a drawing ticket and the winner of the subsequent draw wins $500.

Derby day breakfast will begin being served at 8 a.m. and a special buffet will be offered in the All American Turf Club.

This year’s edition of the Kentucky Derby, the Run for the Roses, shapes up as a wide-open affair after several of the leading contenders have dropped off the derby trail in the past few months.

Still in the derby hunt are defending champion 2-year-old colt Uncle Mo and Florida Derby winner Dialed In.

Uncle Mo was the derby favorite until he finished third in the Wood Memorial, his most recent start, to end his career-starting 4-race winning streak. He has since been treated for a gastrointestinal tract infection and posted promising works at Churchill Downs.

Dialed In showed he could be the derby favorite and should thrive at the one-and-one-quarter-mile distance of the Kentucky Derby with an eye-catching, late-running victory by a game nose in the Florida Derby.

The top fillies pointing to the one-and-one-eighth-mile Kentucky Oaks are headed by Joyful Victory and Zazu. Joyful Victory has been sensational at Oaklawn Park with two impressive dominating stakes wins, each and one-and-one-sixteenth mile. Zazu has been based at Santa Anita Park and won the Las Virgenes Stakes before a troubled second-place run in the Santa Anita Oaks.