Racing Set to Resume at Sunland Park Feb. 26

With racetrack, veterinary, and racing commission officials convinced an outbreak of equine herpesvirus is now under control, Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino was taking entries for Feb. 26, which would mark the return of racing since Jan. 22.

The racing office at the New Mexico track was open Feb. 19 to take entries following presentations made to the New Mexico Racing Commission Feb. 17-18.

"They think we are on the back side of this," Dan Fick, NMRC acting executive director said. "It is a very fluid situation, but it has slowed down and more horses are getting released from quarantine."

With a 1,500-horse stable area and 400 more at the nearby Frontera Training Center, Sunland will have a large pool of horses to fill its races even though some barns remain under quarantine, Fick said. He said no outside horses nor horses from barns still under quarantine would be permitted to compete for the time being, and that no claiming races would be on the card.

Fick said Sunland was carrying out biosecurity measures to help keep EHV-1 from spreading, including disinfecting the scales used by jockeys to weigh out following races.

According to the latest reports from the New Mexico Live Stock Board, a total of 74 horses—72 in New Mexico and two in Texas—have tested positive for EHV-1, but many have been released from isolation. Six horses that tested positive for the neurologic symptoms of EHV-1 have been euthanized.

Fick said other tracks around the country have continued to race in the past despite the presence of an EHV-1 outbreak, though the number of horses confirmed for the disease at Sunland Park is larger than in most of those other cases.

On Feb. 18 Turf Paradise in Arizona lifted a quarantine that had been imposed after three horses shipped there from Sunland Park following the EHV-1 outbreak. One of the horses shipped to Turf Paradise was euthanized after testing positive.

During the racing commission's special meeting Feb. 17 to discuss the outbreak and plans to resume racing, Sunland Park racing director Dustin Dix said the key to keeping the disease under control is containment.

"That's where everything got away from us," Dix said, according to the Associated Press. "This wasn't contained at the outset."