Stable Notes by Mike Ahrens: Saturday, June 6, 2020

Clear but warm skies with the wind picking up gradually over the day greeted us for the first major stakes race of the meet as well as an interesting undercard. To start were four thoroughbred races, trials for the Mountain Top NM Bred Thoroughbred Futurity. With two scratches out of the four events, a total of 30 horses started. The top two finishers from each of the four trials will go to the finals while the remaining two spots for the finals, for a field of 10, will be chosen by a random draw of the four third-place finishers on Sunday morning.

Todd Fincher trained 13 of the trial starters and won with two of them, along with three seconds to assure at least five entrants for the finals. He also had two third-place finishers who may earn a spot pending the draw. "A couple disappointed but overall good day," he said. One of the more impressive was his Aisle Runner who won the third race with an excellent ride by Luis Fuentes. Luis also rode Zesty Jazzman to victory in the fourth, a race in which Fincher had the top four finishers. The first race was won by Jornalero, trained by Juventino Ruiz. "He is my first thoroughbred," said Ruiz, who trains primarily quarter horses. "Not having stalls on the grounds or a track I wasn't sure if he would be ready, all I know he would outwork all my quarter horses." He performed well today, holding off the Fincher trainees My Storm Warrior and Caught Stealing who were a head apart and a length behind Jornalero. The second race of these four went to Fred Danley's Bully Baby, who broke sharply and immediately moved several lengths clear. She was soon after challenged by One Mark, trained by Fincher who said he "stepped back when the gates opened," but who couldn't get past and had to settle for second. "She's showed a lot of speed early, and the only thing I was worried
about was having to save her enough. The rider [Enrique Gomez] did a good job, super job."

Race nine was the Ruidoso Invitational Stakes, with a purse of $100,000 and preference given to the fastest times not qualifying for the Ruidoso Derby. After two scratches a field of eight went to post with the 6-5 favorite Kj Mucho Macho Man now breaking innermost in the field. He was in contention early, but by the end, the race went to Apollitical J Wild who surged past after breaking from far outside. Trained by Sal Soto and ridden by Paul Osbaldo Garcia, the three-year-old gelding had shown ability with a recent third in the West Texas Derby at Sunland Park in March. "He races a lot better when he's on the outside," said Garcia, with the gelding improving following his last outing in the Ruidoso Derby Trial in which he broke from post position one.

The feature of the day, the Ruidoso Derby worth $887,266, was as the fans expected. Hotsempting, a filly trained by Sergio Ibarra and ridden, as in all her starts, by Esgar Ramirez, went postward as the 3-5 favorite. "I was expecting to break a little sharper, but...she left good," said Ramirez. "In two jumps I was getting a little confident," and she responded by taking charge, establishing command of the lead and never relenting. The filly earned her first grade one for Ibarra, who said "I think we've got bigger things to do this summer with her." Cers Final Try, trained by Tony Sedillo, broke well although a bit outwardly, gave chase to the winner in a determined effort once she took command but was second best.