Sunland Park Reaccredited by NTRA
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Sunland Park Racetrack & Casino earned reaccreditation from the National Thoroughbred Racing Association's Safety and Integrity Alliance, the NTRA announced March 19.
Located outside of El Paso in Sunland Park, N.M., and adjacent to Texas and the Mexican state of Chihuahua, the 56-year-old racetrack hosts its biggest day of racing March 22 with seven stakes, highlighted by the $800,000 Sunland Derby (gr. II)
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Last year's Sunland Derby card attracted a record on-track crowd of 18,642.
"We are proud to be among a select group of racetracks fully accredited by the NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance," said Dustin Dix, the director of racing operations at Sunland Park. "Sunland Park is more committed than ever to protecting horsemen and the public from those that would seek an edge by venturing outside the rules. For this weekend's Sunland Derby and Sunland Oaks, we are enacting some of the most stringent protocols in racing, including a secured pre-race detention barn and pre-race testing on every entrant."
Sunland Park received its initial accreditation in 2011 and was reaccredited in 2013. All accreditations and reaccreditations carry an effective period of two years. Sunland Park is one of 23 racing facilities currently fully accredited by the Safety and Integrity Alliance.
"Sunland Park has done an extraordinary job of working with the New Mexico Racing Commission to make the safety of horses and riders, and the integrity of the sport, top priorities at its track in New Mexico," said Alex Waldrop, president and CEO of the NTRA and acting head of the Safety and Integrity Alliance. "We commend Sunland for making great strides since their initial accreditation with the implementation of a number of the best practices track-wide."
In areas intended to create a safer racing environment, the "best practices" in use at Sunland Park include an on-site substance abuse and addiction treatment program, utilization of the Uniform National Trainers Test (adopted by the NMRC), and notification of house rules in the track's condition book.
In areas of equine drug testing and penalties, "best practices" identified include out-of-competition testing for blood and gene doping agents, frozen storage and retroactive "supertesting" of suspect blood plasma or urine samples, the use of an official testing laboratory (UC Davis' Maddy Laboratory) that is fully accredited by the Racing Medication & Testing Consortium, and proper security assessment and training.
Regarding the health and safety of jockeys, "best practices" recognized include adherence to the Association of Racing Commissioners International model rules pertaining to the scale of weights and jockey qualifications.
The accreditation of Sunland Park was the culmination of a lengthy process that began with the track's completion of a 48-page written application and continued as Sunland hosted several meetings with Safety and Integrity Alliance officials. An on-site review included inspections of all facets of the racing facility. Interviews were also conducted with track executives, racetrack personnel, jockeys, owners, trainers, stewards, and fans.
The inspection team was comprised of Jim Gates, consultant and former general manager of Churchill Downs; Dr. Ron Jensen, D.V.M., former equine medical director of the California Horse Racing Board; Mike Kilpack, security and integrity consultant and past chairman of the Organization of Racetrack Investigators; and Mike Ziegler, former executive director of the Safety and Integrity Alliance.
Sunland Park is a subsidiary of owner Stan Fulton's My Way Holdings. Since adding slot machines, average daily purses at the racetrack have gone from $30,000 per day during the 1998-1999 season to more than $240,000 per day at the current meet.