Sunland Derby March 24

‘Best ever’ Sunland Derby could be shaping up
By Ray Sanchez

Excuse Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino retiring general manager Harold Payne, general manager-to-be Rick Baugh, director of operations Dustin Dix and other track officials for looking overly happy today.

“It looks like we’re going to have the best Sunland Derby ever,” Dix says.

And it will be if three of the country’s greatest thoroughbred trainers follow up with commitments they’ve made to this year’s $800,000 Grade III Sunland Derby, to be held March 24. Nationally renowned trainers D. Wayne Lukas, Todd Pletcher and Bob Baffert have all indicated they will enter horses in the Sunland classic.

In addition, Gary Stevens and John Velasquez, two National Hall of Fame jockeys, are committed to ride in the race.

There’s more. Paul Hornung, the fabled “Golden Boy” of football, will have a horse in the Sunland Derby.

Add the top three finishers in the recent Mine That Bird Derby at Sunland and there are already the makings of a spectacular Sunland Derby.

More than 200 nominations from top trainers around the country were received for the Sunland Derby. The full field for the mile and an eighth race will be announced at a media luncheon Wednesday that starts at 11:30 a.m. at Sunland.

Lukas’ entry is expected to be Titletown Five. The colt, co-owned by Paul Hornung, will be ridden by Gary Stevens. It has been indicated that Hornung will be attending the Sunland Derby.

Pletcher’s entry is expected to be Overanalyze and will be ridden by John Velasquez.

Baffert nominated more than one colt but his entry is expected to be Shakin It Up, who has won two of four races in California.

The top three finishers in the Mine That Bird Derby were Dry Summer trained by Joel Marr, Show Some Magic trained by Henry Dominguez and Stormdriver trained by Kevin Eikelberry.

Of course, more commitments could be coming by Wednesday. But as it stands already, the field seems to be shaping up to be a great one.

And by the way, the field for the $200,000 Sunland Oaks for fillies and mares is looking good, too. That will be run the same day as the Sunland Derby.

There’s one sad note to all the excitement. Payne, who is the longest tenured general manager – 20 years – in the history of Sunland Park, will retire the day following the Sunland Derby. He has become one of the most beloved officials in the history of New Mexico horse racing.

Payne has spent the last several days helping his replacement, Rick Baugh, learn the ins and outs of the Sunland operation. Baugh, a former Ruidoso Downs and Zia Park general manager, has made a favorable first impression.

Mutuels manager Steve Fedunak says, “He was very friendly when we met. He seems like a very nice man.” And marketing and sales director Terri Wyatt commented that she was optimistic about the future of Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino after meeting him.

Live racing at Sunland will continue on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Tuesdays through April 16. First post time is 1 p.m.

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Sunland Derby a class reunion for Pletcher and Marr
By Jay Privman


The Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby on Sunday takes place in the American Southwest, so it could be a shootout, and since the track is in New Mexico, hard by El Paso, Texas, it could be a border war. But, really, it’s nothing more than a schoolyard brawl.

You see, Joel Marr, who trains local hero Dry Summer, and Todd Pletcher, who is bringing in Abraham, went to school together nearly 40 years ago at nearby Zach White Elementary School, a little more than two miles from the track.

Who beat up whom on the playground?

“I was pretty little,” Marr said in a telephone interview earlier this week, “and I was fast, so I didn’t get beat up much.”

Zach White, located just on the other side of the border in Texas, apparently was the school of choice for children of local horsemen. Both Marr and Pletcher say they remember going to school with Mike Smith, who became a jockey, and Steve Asmussen, now training after a brief stint as a jockey, though both were a couple of years ahead of Marr and Pletcher.

Both Marr and Pletcher are now 45 years old, and their paths have diverged since Pletcher was a Toddler. Pletcher, who long ago moved East, is now nationally known. He has won the Kentucky Derby, seven Breeders’ Cup races, has been named the Eclipse Award-winning trainer five times, and has well more than 100 of the choicest horses in his care.

Marr chose to remain near where he grew up, and he has become one of the leading trainers in the Southwest. In both 2010 and 2011, his runners earned more than $2 million, and his runners have earned more than $1 million annually every year since 2007. He has won 884 races lifetime in a training career that began in 1991. No, those aren’t Pletcher numbers, but that’s not what Marr desires.

“I never wanted to go anywhere. I’ll run at Lone Star and Turf Paradise, but I love it here in New Mexico,” Marr said. “I’ve got a farm in Tularosa that’s about 100 miles northeast of El Paso, easy distance from Ruidoso and Albuquerque, so it’s centrally located.”

Marr did achieve national attention with the mare Peppers Pride, who won all 19 of her starts in races restricted to New Mexico-breds during a career that ended in 2008.

He has approximately 30 racehorses at Sunland Park, and he has younger horses – “babies, the one’s I’m breaking” – at the nearby Frontera Training Center. Included in that bunch is a 2-year-old Distorted Humor filly who is the first foal out of Peppers Pride.

“We’re taking our time with her,” Marr said. “I’m not expecting any miracles. She got really sick when she foaled. She colicked. Right now, she’s doing well. We’ll see how it goes.”

Since then, Peppers Pride – who is at Taylor Made Farm in Kentucky – has had a colt by Distorted Humor who is now a yearling, and she recently had a colt by Malibu Moon, Marr said.

[SUNLAND DERBY: Get PPs, watch Sunday's full card live]

The Sunland Derby, at 1 1/8 miles, drew a field of nine on Wednesday. Dry Summer, to be ridden by Carlos Madeira, landed post 6, with Abraham in post 2. John Velazquez will be in to ride Abraham.

The rest of the field, from the rail out, is Just Win Baby, Stormdriver, Shakin It Up, Saint Prado, Govenor Charlie, Mudflats, and Show Some Magic.

Shakin It Up, winner of the San Vicente Stakes at Santa Anita in his last start, is the 5-2 favorite on the track’s morning line. David Flores has the mount. Abraham is 4-1, and Dry Summer 5-1.

The Sunland Derby is the last of the preps worth 85 points overall, and 50 to the winner, under the new system put in place this year by Churchill Downs to determine eligibility to the May 4 Kentucky Derby. Races with 100 points to the winner begin March 30.

Both Marr and Pletcher got into racing because their fathers were trainers. Marr’s father, Gerald Marr, 75, is still active, with 24 runners at Sunland. Marr went to New Mexico State University, where he got degrees in business and animal science. After a brief flirtation with being a veterinarian, he turned to training and settled near Sunland Park, where he lives with wife, the former jockey Teresa Briggs, and daughters Shacie, 11, and Shaeden, 9.

His reputation as being a top trainer on the New Mexico circuit is one of the reasons Dry Summer came to Marr. He has had horses for Sam Britt, who co-owns Dry Summer with Michael House, for more than a decade. Dry Summer won two of his first three starts in Southern California for trainer Jeff Mullins, but then was well beaten in three straight, including the Sham Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 5.

“He wasn’t doing well on that surface out there, so they sent him here to see if he could get in the swing of things,” Marr said.

Since relocating to Sunland, Dry Summer won an allowance race Jan. 27, then captured the Mine That Bird Derby, the major local prep for the Sunland Derby, on Feb. 23.

Sunday’s assignment is his biggest since leaving California, though Dry Summer does have the home-field advantage.

“He’s doing well, so we’ll give it a shot,” Marr said. “I know he’ll try hard. He definitely has some talent, and he definitely likes the surface. Whether he’s good enough, we’ll find out.”
www.drf.com/news/sunland-derby-class-reunion-pletcher-and-marr

Blue-blooded Govenor Charlie steps up in Sunland Derby

Fifteen years removed from their Kentucky Derby victory with Real Quiet, owner Mike Pegram and trainer Bob Baffert have another potential candidate for the Louisville classic in Govenor Charlie, one of two colts Baffert will saddle in Sunday's Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby over 1 1/8 miles.

The lightly-raced Govenor Charlie has made just two starts. Recovering from a slow start to finish a distant second to next-out allowance winner Let Em Shine in a a January 19 maiden at Santa Anita, the dark bay successfully stretched out to a mile over the same track February 17 and bested next-out maiden winner Footbridge by a neck after a stretch-long duel.

A homebred, Govenor Charlie is by the Baffert-trained sprint champion Midnight Lute. The colt's second dam is Silverbulletday, a two-time champion for Pegram and Baffert whose major victories included the Kentucky Oaks, Alabama and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.


Shakin It Up, another Midnight Lute grandson of Silverbulletday, is the other Baffert trainee in the field. Bred by Pegram and co-owned by him with Dennis Cardoza, Shakin It Up has a deeper resume so far with two stakes appearances under his belt. Third in the Grade 3 Hollywood Prevue last November following a dominant maiden score at Santa Anita, Shakin It Up kicked off 2013 with a one-length tally in the Grade 2 San Vicente at Santa Anita over seven furlongs on February 17.

Other California invaders making the trek to Sunland Park for Sunday's race are last-out maiden winners Just Win Baby and Saint Prado, and the Doug O'Neill-trained Mudflats, who was unplaced in both the San Vicente and Grade 2 Jerome in his two stakes appearances.

The lone East Coast shipper in the Sunland Derby is the Todd Pletcher trainee Abraham, who rebounded from a photo-finish loss in his debut to win a nine-furlong Gulfstream Park maiden by a length in the slop February 16.

The Sunland Derby field is rounded out by the top three finishers from the February 23 Mine That Bird Derby -- Dry Summer, Show Some Magic and Stormdriver -- all of whom are locally based.

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