ALBUQUERQUE — A total of three New Mexico-bred quarter horses seized their opportunity to compete on closing weekend at the current Ruidoso meet at Albuquerque Downs, earning starting gate positions in three open races on Labor Day weekend.
In the eight trial heats held Sunday for the All American Derby, New Mexico’s King of the Tide earned a spot in the starting gate for the 440-yard dash worth a purse of $1,080,992, finishing third in the fifth trial heat of the day.
King of the Tide’s third-place finish behind Political Twist and Midnite Smokin was fast enough to earn the ninth-fastest qualifying time of the day for the All American Derby. Owned by E. Gene Bradley, Tod Bradley and Ware Brown, the Trey Wood trainee was ridden by Ricky Ramirez in that trial with a time of 20.993 seconds.
Bred in New Mexico by MJ Farms, the son of Eye Am King has never finished worse than third in eight career starts and will be looking for his first stakes win since last year’s All American Futurity over this course.
King Estate also advanced to the closing weekend’s parade of stakes races, finishing third behind Mr High Five and Effortless Favorite in the third trial for the All American Derby.
Ridden by Christian Cardenas for owners Lifes A Dream Farm and Racing LLC and trained by Rodolfo Valles, King Estate earned the third fastest time for the $100,000 All American Invitational, which is restricted to the second 10 fastest qualifiers from the All American Derby trials.
The son of Eye Am King has won three of six starts including his most recent tally in the Zia Derby with earnings of more than $144,000.
Valles will also be busy on closing day when he is expected to saddle Shafer, winner of Saturday’s fourth trial for the All American Futurity and fourth-fastest qualifier for the $200,000 All American Juvenile.
Ridden by Cardenas, Shafer crossed the finish a length ahead of his rivals in a final time of 21.189 seconds. The son of Big Daddy Cartel has three wins from four starts, all of the wins coming in trial heats. His only loss was a disappointing ninth in the Mountain Top Futurity earlier this meet.
Owned by Triple R Racing Stables LLC, Tye Baca, Tungsten Racing Partnership and Ted Rushing, Shafer was a $350,000 purchase at the 2025 Ruidoso New Mexico Bred Yearling Sale.