Thursday Thoughts with Jason Beem for Feb. 13, 2025

A good Thursday morning to you all! Sunday will be Sunland Park’s big chance to shine as they offer up points towards the Kentucky Derby (G1) and Oaks (G1) with their big Sunland Derby card. I’ve had the good fortune to visit Sunland on a few different occasions and even stopped by there briefly on my drive back to Florida this past winter. It’s funny because the border of Texas and New Mexico is only a couple hundred feet from the track. And it's funny how many casino/racetracks are very close to the border of Texas. Sunland is right next to El Paso, Delta Downs isn’t far from the East Texas border by Houston, and Louisiana Downs is very close to the Northeast Texas border in Louisiana. I’m sure it’s not a coincidence.  

I wanted to share a kind of fun and silly little story from my first ever visit to Sunland Park. It was 2006 and I was driving across the country to River Downs for my first announcing job ever. In 2004 I worked in the Emerald Downs press box and got the chance to work with and become friends with Robert Geller, who called races at Emerald, as well as at Sunland. I called Robert a day ahead of my visit to tell him I was going to stop by and he was nice enough to meet me downstairs and bring me up to the booth to hang out for the day. 

I’d called about eight races in my life on a live mic at Portland before getting the River Downs job and I’d only ever been in the booth with another announcer at Portland, so I was very excited to see him work and just pepper him with questions about calling races. Sunland used to always run long cards, 11 or 12 races, and Robert let me hang out with him the whole day. If you ever get the chance to watch him call races, he’s amazing at it, but I always feel like he effortlessly memorizes the field. He’d be chatting with me up until they were going to the gate when he’d finally glance at the horses and commit them to memory in a few seconds. 

At one point during the day, he did a phone interview with a racing television channel. They were picking his brain about the upcoming races and he gave out a horse who he said looked great on the track who ended up running second at like 37-1! 

But my favorite memory of that day came about during the sixth or seventh race. There was a first time starter named Scaramouche and Robert asked me during the post parade “how would you say that name?” I said “I think it’s the word from the song Bohemian Rhapsody.” He chuckled and said “Oh ok, Scaramouche.” 

So Robert starts calling the race and wouldn’t you know it, as they come into the stretch, here comes Scaramouche flying up on the outside. The horse hit’s the lead and Robert turns around and looks at me, as the race is still finishing, and smiles and calls “Here’s Scaramouche, doing the fandango!” He then turned back around, finished the call and turned off his mic. We both laughed and I marveled at how quickly that came to his brain to add the song lyrics. I’ve probably heard that song 100 times since then, most of those from watching a rerun of Wayne’s World. Every time that lyric comes up “Scaramouche, Scaramouche, can you do the fandango,” I smile and think of Robert and Sunland Park. 

Like most tracks, Sunland has its charm and I particularly enjoy the desert landscape around the track. And if you ever do go there, make sure to visit Chicos Tacos in El Paso. They look disgusting, but I promise you they’re awesome. 

Enjoy Sunland Derby weekend!