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Red Raider Weekend Starts Friday With Mountain Top Futurity Trials
The iconic Red Raider mascot will be leading the post parade for the Mountain Top Futurity trials on Friday.

© Texas Tech
Red Raider Weekend Starts Friday With Mountain Top Futurity Trials

RUIDOSO DOWNS, NM—MAY 27, 2018—The Red Raider Weekend of racing begins on Friday afternoon with 10 contentious trials to the $345,000 Mountain Top Futurity at Ruidoso Downs.

On Saturday, is the first running of the Dash For Speed Stakes at 350 yards for fillies and mares.

The 350-yard Mountain Top Futurity trials are contested by New Mexico-bred two-year-olds.

First post time is 1 p.m. and the 10 trials fill the program.

Red Raider Weekend is for Texas Tech students, alumni and fans. One highlight is country music sensation Flatland Cavalry playing on Saturday night under the stars. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 on the day of the show.

The iconic Red Raider mascot will be leading the post parade for races. The Red Raider mascot became a regular part of the Texas Tech program when Joe Kirk Fulton rode Blackie in the 1953 Gator Bowl. The Red Raider was an immediate success.

Fulton went on to become a leader in quarter horse racing. Horses he bred and owned were led by the gorgeous 1984 world champion Dashs Dream and 1991 world champion and sire Special Leader. Each of those horses won major stakes races at Ruidoso Downs. He bred 72 other stakes winners and is a member of the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame.

The Mountain Top Futurity trials are wide open and should produce surprise horses that will go on to greater success.

The top prospects each ran in the $396,000 New Mexican Spring Futurity at Sunland Park. Cat Daddys Lil Girl finished fourth, Rallydownthealley ran fifth and Igotmybiggirljeanson raced to a sixth-place finish in the Spring Futurity. All three horses are sired by Big Daddy Cartel.

Jimmy Negrete and Jimmy Vasquez’s homebred Cat Daddys Lil Girl won her Spring Futurity trial by one-half length as a 32-1 outsider and then had a troubled run in the Spring Futurity.

"The horse next to her flipped in the gate," said trainer Donna McArthur. "They took the horse that flipped out the front of the gate and stood him right in front of her. They then took him around and loaded him. She just lost all of her concentration. She closed really well and I think she’ll like the 350 yards (of the Mountain Top trials)."

Mauro Salcedo rides Cat Daddys Lil Girl from the sixth post position in the fifth trial.

Diamond Racing Stables’ Rallydownthealley was expected to excel in his first start and he won his Spring Futurity by a neck as the 2-1 favorite. He then bumped a foe in the finals and managed a fifth-place run.

Trainer Isidro Rodriguez has named Esgar Ramirez to ride Rallydownthealley. They drew the second post position in the seventh trial.

Jerry and Sheree Cannon’s Igotmybiggirljeanson is still a maiden, however could change that condition in the fourth trial when he starts from the outside post position. She was second by a neck while battling for the lead in her Spring Futurity trial. She was fractious in the gate before the start of the futurity finals and then bumped at the start.

Justin Shepard rides Igotmybiggirljeanson for trainer Rodolfo Valles.

There is always free parking and free general admission at Ruidoso Downs.

For additional Ruidoso Downs information, go to the new raceruidoso.com, visit the Ruidoso Downs Race Track and Casino Facebook page and follow Ruidoso Downs on Twitter @RuiPressBox.

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