By Jessica Martini
Sunland Park, which has been under quarantine due to an outbreak of equine herpesvirus since January, will not be running the GIII Sunland Derby or Sunland Park Oaks as scheduled Mar. 20. Instead, the New Mexico track will offer a pair of renamed stakes races for sophomores on that day's card.
The renamed Derby will be run ungraded as the Sunland Park Festival of Racing S. for 3-year-olds going nine furlongs and with a purse of $415,000. The Derby, which had an expected purse of $800,000, also featured 85 qualifying points to the GI Kentucky Derby. Those points will now not be offered.
The Sunland Park Oaks will be run as the Plum Pretty S., with its purse unchanged at $200,000.
Firing Line (Line of David) romped home by 14 1/4 lengths in last year's Sunland Derby before finishing a length second behind American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile) in the Kentucky Derby.
Pending test results from the weekend, Sunland officials are hopeful the New Mexico Livestock Board will lift the track's quarantine Wednesday.
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