The 24th horse racing meet at Zia Park Casino, Hotel and Racetrack which starts Friday, Nov. 3, will be its richest ever with overnight purses expected to average $360,000 per day for the 30-day mixed Thoroughbred/Quarter Horse meet.
Quarter Horse racing will take place every Saturday and Sunday (plus Friday, Nov. 3) with Thoroughbred racing every Monday and Tuesday (plus Wednesday, Dec. 20.)
“With the realignment of the 2023 New Mexico racing calendar this is a tremendous opportunity to showcase New Mexico horse racing,” said Christopher McErlean, Vice President of Racing for PENN Entertainment, parent company of Zia Park. “There will be racing opportunities for all categories – New Mexico-breds and Open horses, wide ranges of allowance classes and plenty of spots for different claiming levels – and the purses will be unlike anything seen in this region of the country. If horsemen don't have Zia Park on their radar yet, they should take notice and make plans to participate,” he added.
An example of the expected purse levels is the Maiden Special Weight category with a $45,000 base purse – New Mexico bred exclusive races will go for $55,000. Open allowance categories will range from $52,500 up to $65,000 while New Mexico bred allowance races will get an added $12,000 per race. Claiming race purses will range from $24,000 to $46,500 (plus $7,000 to $8,000 added for New Mexico bred races) with claiming categories from $7,500 to $25,000.
Stall applications for the 2023 Zia Park race meet at due Aug. 15 and can be found at https://www.ziaparkcasino.com/racing. The stable area is expected to open the week of Sept. 25 and interest will be high for the 1,500 available stalls.
The $4.2 million purse schedule will be highlighted by back-to-back-to-back million-dollar stakes days. On Sunday, Nov. 26, seven New Mexico-bred stakes races totaling over $1.2 million in purses will be in the spotlight, headed by the $350,000 (est.) New Mexico Classic Cup Futurity and the $225,000 (est.) New Mexico Classic Cup Derby.
On Monday, Nov. 27, New Mexico-bred Thoroughbreds will be front and center with eight New Mexico Classic Cup championship races worth over $1.2 million, including the $200,000 Peppers Pride for older fillies and mares going one mile and the $200,000 Rocky Gulch for older male horses going one mile and seventy yards. The trifecta of million-dollar stakes days concludes Tuesday, Nov. 28, with the Land of Enchantment Stakes Day featuring seven stakes worth over $1.1 million including the $300,000 Zia Park Derby and $300,000 Zia Park Oaks, both at one mile and one sixteenth.
Sunday, Dec. 17 features six graded Quarter Horse stakes worth over $600,000, including the Grade 1, $125,000 Zia Park Quarter Horse Championship at 440 yards for the best older Quarter Horses in the Southwest.
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