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Ruidoso Downs Training Races Attract 195 Aspiring
Juveniles RUIDOSO DOWNS, NM - May 5, 2011 – Some of the future stars of the upcoming futurity season at Ruidoso Downs are undoubtedly among the 195 2-year-old quarter horses who entered three days of training races to be held on Monday through Wednesday at the mountain track. These first-ever training races at Ruidoso Downs will be run over 330 yards and each race will have a maximum of six horses. The training races start at 9:30 a.m. daily and there will be 18 minutes between each heat. There will be 13 training races on Monday, 13 races on Tuesday and 12 races on Wednesday. The Paul Jones stable entered 49 hopefuls while the father-son duo of Blane and Trey Wood placed 30 horses in the entry box. “About all of our youngsters have only been at the ranch (in Tularosa) so this gives them a chance to run down the quarter horse chute,” said Lisa Saumell, who oversees the Jones operation in New Mexico. “The track here is different than other tracks (with the chute) so these races help all the horses, not just ours.” Ruidoso Downs is the only racetrack with separate quarter horse and thoroughbred tracks. “The training races are great. It’s like the horse having a race; the horses move forward (in their training) like they have a race. Plus, trainers get an idea of what they may need to work on with a horse before the (Ruidoso Futurity) trials,” she added. The Ruidoso Downs summer futurity season starts on opening day, May 27, with the daylong trials to the Grade 1, $500,000 Ruidoso Futurity. The Ruidoso Futurity finals will be contested on June 12. The Grade 1, $700,000 Rainbow Futurity will be on July 24 and the Grade 1, $2,400,000 (est.) All American Futurity, the world’s richest quarter horse race, is on Labor Day. If a horse can sweep all three futurities then that horse’s connections earn the $4,000,000 All American Triple Crown Bonus, the richest in quarter horse racing. |
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