Inaugurated in 2003, the race is open to three-year-olds willing to race one and one-sixteenth miles on the dirt and is sponsored by WinStar Farm of Versailles, Kentucky.
Held in March, the Sunland Derby currently offers a purse of $400,000.
In its 11th year in 2013, it received Grade III status from the American Graded Stakes Committee for the first time in 2010.
[1] It is listed as an official Kentucky Derby prep race.
The 2016 running of the Sunland Derby was cancelled due to an outbreak of Equine herpesvirus 1.