Stronghold wins 19th annual Sunland Derby
SUNLAND PARK, New Mexico (KTSM) – Stronghold raced to a first-place finish to win the 2024 Sunland Derby (G3) at the Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino on Sunday.
Stronghold, the 3-2 betting favorite, recorded a time of 1:42.64 in 1 1/16 miles to win the $400,000 race. Stronghold, with jockey Antonio Fresu, held off competitors Lucky Jeremy (2nd place) and Alotaluck (3rd place) for the Sunland Derby win.
With the win, Stronghold, trained by Philip D’Amato and owned by Eric M. and Sharon Waller, earned 20 qualifying points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. Stronghold now has a total of 25 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby leaderboard.
This year’s derby awarded fewer qualifying points compared to recent years. For much of its history, the Sunland Derby had a 50-25-15-10-5 points system. Ahead of the 2024 Sunland Derby, it was changed to a 20-10-6-4-2 points system. The Sunland Derby is still one of 37 races that has qualifying points to the Kentucky Derby.
“We wanted to move it earlier in the calendar to give horsemen an opportunity to get more points after our race,” Dustin Dix, Director of Racing for Sunland Park Racetrack & Casino, said on Sunday. “So potentially not just having one horse in the Sunland Derby, but hopefully having multiple horses in the Sunland Derby running in the Kentucky Derby is our ultimate goal.”
In the Sunland Oaks, Recharge was the winner of the $250,000 race.
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