Weekend Wrap-Up by Mike Ahrens: June 12 - 14, 2020

Today featured partly cloudy skies, just a moderate wind, and plenty of stakes action. The eighth race kicked off three stakes in a row beginning with the Rita Danley Distaff Stakes for New Mexico-bred QH fillies and mares three years old and up. A field of 10 went postward with Close to Crazy the 5-2 favorite from the outside post position. The three-year-old sorel filly trained by Juan M. Gonzalez and ridden by Adrian A. Ramos did not disappoint, breaking sharply and never looking back, crossing the wire a length-and-a-half to the good. "I was confident in her coming into this race," said Juan Carlos Gonzalez, son of current trainer Juan M. Gonzalez, "although there was some tough competition in there. This filly has been very sound. She does everything right. She broke really sharp out of there, she's known for that. The only blemish I would put on her record is she's not a very good comeback filly. When it comes to running trials and finals that's when we always saw some kind of minor bounce...but when you give her the right time, she always gives you everything." Unraced since March 1st at Sunland Park, she prepared with a sole work going 220 here on May 25th in 11.25 which was fastest of 46 that day. "That was just in the jockey's hands basically, that's what we do in our workouts, we don't try to get a race out of them." It would appear, then, they gave her the right amount of time and preparation to produce an impressive performance today.

The race following the Rita Danley was the Ruidoso Sprint Handicap going five-and-one-half furlongs for three-year-olds and upwards with a field of seven. The post-time favorite was Tappin Fora Dance, a three-year-old gelding trained by Joel Marr and ridden by Luis Fuentes, who pressed the pace set to his outside by Hollywood Henry, a five-year-old gelding ridden today by Elvin Gonzalez and trained by
Fred Danley. Tappin Fora Dance would end up weakening in his first race against elders, while Hollywood Henry ran on well but could not match strides late with American Dubai, who after a slow start moved up to stalk that pair into the turn, took over past the eighth pole and drove clear to prevail by two-and-one-quarter lengths just two-fifths of a second off the track record. A seven-year-old horse trained by Rodney Richards and ridden today for the first time by Enrique Gomez, this was his second sprint race in a row and only third
overall in a career that now spans 25 starts, having run only in one mile or longer races his whole career excepting his debut and last two races. "I've always thought he could sprint," said Richards. "The breeders in Kentucky have him pegged at seven furlongs." Though this horse's biggest successes came at longer distances with victories in The Downs at Albuquerque Handicap and Sunland Park Handicap, a lack of
route stakes races in the area at the present led to today's race being a target since the unexpected end at Sunland this winter. "When the vet at Churchill [where he debuted] looked at his blood count, he said 'This horse is going to be your big horse, his red blood cell count is so high, this horse will make a great sire,' but you look at him and he just stands out." The tactics have changed over the years, with most of his route races finding him on the lead, but Richards said "His very first race I had him training come off the pace and he broke his maiden first time out coming off the pace." We'll see what's in store for this veteran going forward.

The final stakes of the day were the Maiden Stakes Finals which went as race 10. There was no jinx on Wes Giles today as his Jess Cuz Pyc Can struck the lead soon after a slightly tardy beginning where the
three-year-old gelding exchanged a minor bump, established solid command midway down the track and held by a neck over favored Hock You trained by Roberto Treto. Giles also finished third with A Valiant Zoomer and seventh with Colonel Chamberlain. Ridden by the barn's go-to rider Alan Hernandez, Giles said "This big horse had a hard time learning how to leave last year, he was almost this big. So I guess I was a little concerned about the leaving part, being next to the fastest qualifier, but looked like he handled it okay today." Despite not leaving the gates as well as possible it was a good enough effort to win and this out sets him up well to "move onto the next one. I think the Rainbow [Derby] if everything goes good."