Family Day Fun And Top Sprinters On Tap Saturday at Ruidoso Downs

RUIDOSO DOWNS, New Mexico (May 30, 2011) – Saturday is a day for the sprinters with kids competing in the 100-yard stick-horse races to headline Family Day and the best thoroughbred sprinters in New Mexico Racing six furlongs in the $40,000 Free Spirit Handicap.

There will be free grandstand seating while available for Family Day and there is always free parking and free general admission at Ruidoso Downs.

The Family Day activities start at 8 a.m. with 99-cent pancakes until 10 am. Breakfast is followed at 10 a.m. with tours of the paddock and jockey’s quarters. The most anticipated activity every year on Family Day are the stick-horse races. The stick-horse trial races will be at noon with children aged 5-12 racing the supplied stick horses for 100 yards out of the starting gate.

The first race of the 10-race horseracing program begins at 1 p.m.

Last year’s Ruidoso Thoroughbred Championship winner Quiet Again tries a shorter distance in the Free Spirit Handicap. The Real Quiet-sired gelding took the Thoroughbred Championship over one-and-one-sixteenth mile by more than two lengths as the odds-on favorite.

Since that victory, Paul Bruce Thomason’s Quiet Again then went on to win the Budweiser Special and the Curribot Handicap to go with a second-place run in Star Of Texas Stakes and a third-place finishes in the Sunland Park Handicap and Veteran Stakes.

Trainer Jimmie Claridge has named Alejandro Medellin to ride Quiet Again with the fifth post position.

T. Nick Morris’ All Man thrives at sprint distances and comes off a dominating 7-length win over four-and-one-half furlongs against lesser competition than he will face in the Free Spirit. The Weston Martin-trained gelding was a close second in the Inaugural Handicap at SunRay Park two starts ago at six-and-one-half furlongs.

Jorge Martin Bourdieu has the mount on All Man with the sixth post position.