Preview Racing


Top Two $1 Million Ruidoso Futurity Winners Start Huge Weekend In Rainbow Futurity Trials
Newman Cattle Company's Blue Corazon will look to take the next step if he can qualify to the Grade 1 Rainbow Futurity in next week's trails at Ruidoso Downs.

© Ismael Venegas
Top Two $1 Million Ruidoso Futurity Winners Start Huge Weekend In Rainbow Futurity Trials

RUIDOSO DOWNS, NM—JULY 1, 2018—The top-two finishers in the Grade 1, $1 Million Ruidoso Futurity — Blue Corazon and Suze Returns — top the 276 entrants in the two days of trials to the Grade 1, $1 Million on Friday and Saturday at Ruidoso Downs.

First post time is noon each day and there are 14 400-yard trials each day. The horses with the top-five times from each trial advance to the Rainbow Futurity on July 22. The horses with the next five-fastest times gain preference to race in the $100,000 Rainbow Juvenile on the same day.

On Sunday, Triple Crown winning jockey and New Mexico native Mike Smith is honored during his Triple Crown Victory Celebration. Smith was born in Roswell and grew up near Dexter. He won this year's Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes aboard Justify, the 13th Triple Crown winner. Smith is the oldest Kentucky Derby winning jockey at 52.

Triple Crown posters go on sale near the hamburger stand in the grandstand at 11 a.m. They cost $10. Smith will be signing posters at 1 p.m. at the east end of the grandstand. Those posters cost $25. All proceeds benefit Permanently Disabled Jockey Fund.

Jockey Mike Smith aboard Triple Crown Futurity winner Justify at Belmont Park. © New York Racing Association
Also on Sunday, the card is highlighted with nine trials to the Grade 1, $826,764 Rainbow Derby.

Blue Corazon and Suze Returns each race on Saturday.

Newman Cattle Company's Blue Corazon has excelled in each of his two starts. The gelding made his debut in the 350-yard trials to the Ruidoso Futurity and impressed with the second-fastest time of :17.985 of his day while winning under Ricky Ramirez. The gray son of first crop sire Coronado Cartel made the big step forward in the Ruidoso Futurity when he overcame bearing in at the start and went to the lead. He was never headed on his way to the one-half length score. The win pushed his earnings to $424,800 from those two outs.

"He's doing really good," Ramirez, the only jockey to ride Blue Corazon, said. "He pulled up good and is eating good.

"I took him to the gate and he was perfect. I think he is still peaking and he is only going to get better."

Ramirez will be up on Blue Corazon when he starts from the ninth post position in the 11th trial.

Joe Rios' Suze Returns, a $30,000 supplemental nominee, has been brilliant since starting her career in March at Sunland Park. She first started in her West Texas Futurity trial and dominated the trial by two-and-one-quarter lengths. The High Rate Of Return-sired filly then won the Grade 2, $269,000 West Texas Futurity by a neck as the 5-2 favorite. She won her Ruidoso Futurity trial by one length before settling for second behind Blue Corazon in the Ruidoso Futurity.

An earner of $316,818, Suze Return starts from the third post position in the eighth trial. Regular rider Jaime Parga Leos rides for trainer Juan Carlos Gonzalez.

Friday's trials include the top-two finishers in the $100,000 Ruidoso Juvenile, Em Bodacious Chick and Our Favorite Sweet.

Eduardo Mendoza's Em Bodacious Chick, a daughter of Bodacious Dash, won his maiden in his fifth start at 20-1 odds when he defeated Our Favorite Sweet in the Ruidoso Juvenile by a nose.

The Cynthia Gonzalez-trained Em Bodacious Chick is in the seventh trial and Leos is the jockey with the sixth post position.

Gary Hartstack's Out Favorite Sweet, a $29,000 Ruidoso Select Yearling purchase, is still a maiden after narrowing losing the Ruidoso Juvenile. The Jackie Riddle-trained son of Favorite Cartel was second to Suze Returns in their Ruidoso Futurity trial.

Francisco Calderon gets the riding call with the eighth post position in the third trial.

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