Sunland Park Closes 2026 Season With Strong Stakes Performances

Avery Place beat a field of eight Sunday in the Mine That Bird Derby, crossing the wire in 1:51.63 at 5/1 odds to close out the final stakes card of Sunland Park's 2026 meet. The three-year-old's 1-mile-1-furlong dirt score announced something larger than a single race result: this closing weekend drew Hall of Fame trainer Michael McCarthy's Smoovin Saturday (second), Steven Asmussen's Zilarro (third), and the 5/4 favorite Misinformation from Justin Evans's barn (fourth), confirming that national-caliber connections still consider Sunland a legitimate proving ground.

El Paso-based trainer Dick Evans, credited with Avery Place's win by multiple regional outlets, did not hedge on his assessment afterward: "Avery Place is really improving." That phrasing signals connections have not yet set a ceiling on the horse's spring campaign. The official race card lists trainer Dick Cappellucci and jockey Alfredo Juarez Jr. as Avery Place's connections of record, a discrepancy that track officials had not resolved as of Sunday evening's published recaps. Whoever manages the horse's next start, Avery Place has a résumé that will travel: a stakes win at 5/1 over a field that includes McCarthy and Asmussen runners carries real credibility at Oaklawn Park or any number of spring targets.

The quarter horse division produced its own standouts. Baby Daddy Cartel took the New Mexico Spring Fling Stakes on April 4, while CQ Coyame Jessy claimed the NMHBA Quarter Horse Stakes the same day for owner Israel Bordier under trainer Wesley Giles and jockey Noe Garcia Jr. CQ Coyame Jessy is a son of Big Daddy Cartel out of Runaway Leonarda (by Jesse James Jr.), bred by Carlos Paez and Israel Bordier, a regional bloodline profile with the sprint pedigree to attract attention as connections explore summer quarter horse targets.

The broader meet had already delivered its marquee graded stakes moment weeks earlier. Traxion, owned by Abraham Escobedo and trained by Jorge A. Morales-Flores, posted a :19.01 clocking in the Grade III West Texas Derby on February 28, a 400-yard score worth $190,212 and the second graded win of his career under jockey Jesse Levario. That elapsed time at 400 yards benchmarks against open company at any major quarter horse venue in the country.

The financial architecture supporting these results held firm through the season close. Daily purses averaging nearly $250,000 represent roughly seven times the $35,000 daily average Sunland Park posted before its casino expansion, and a $310,000 mid-season stakes purse increase, announced March 2 and funded by stronger-than-predicted gaming revenue, pushed that number further while guaranteeing a minimum of 10 races per card through April. For a track running December through April on the New Mexico-Texas border, those figures explain why names like Asmussen, McCarthy, and Florent Geroux keep showing up in the entries.

Sunland Park launched the careers of Hall of Famers Jerry Bailey and Pat Valenzuela, and leading rider Cash Asmussen got his start there too. The 2026 meet closed with that same premise intact: the horses worth watching at bigger tracks in May got their sharpening work done here first.