Ruidoso Downs has been repeatedly pulled short over the past two weeks. It was saved from bushfires that forced horses off the track on June 18, but is now suffering damage from floodwaters and floating debris without the vegetation to block it thanks to the fire.
On June 29, the six-furlong Ruidoso Thoroughbred track and course were flooded. It was initially thought that only one day of racing would be lost as crews quickly began repair efforts, but continued flooding on June 30 put the entire race in doubt.
“We were almost ready to put the pad back on the track and the flooding came,” said Ruidoso general manager Rick Baugh. “It was worse than the first day. We were able to save most of the track, except for the six-furlong chute.”
June 30 Flooding at Ruidoso Downs
With the safety of the track in question, and concerns from equestrian enthusiasts about their livelihoods, the New Mexico Horse Racing Commission held an emergency meeting on July 2 to discuss the way forward as the state’s horse racing industry finds itself at a crossroads.
The main plan proposed by the NMRC, which was later highlighted as the way the horsemen did it during the public comment portion of the meeting, was to move Thoroughbred racing to The Downs in AlbuquerqueThe Ruidoso race is scheduled to end on September 2, while the Albuquerque race begins on August 29. The proposal would call for Albuquerque to open early to make up for the loss of the Ruidoso races.
“This is an industry issue, not just a Ruidoso issue,” said NMRC vice president David Sanchez. “We (NMRC) are responsible for this industry. Let’s try to get it up and running and keep it going.”
Ruidoso’s Quarter Horse Racetrack was largely unaffected by the flooding, except for a section where horses stopped after racing at the club bend, where the straight connects to the Thoroughbred track.
“In the meantime, we are finalizing the base course for the (club) turn to get the track back in place,” Baugh told the committee.
However, the Thoroughbred track is much worse because the six-furlong track, where many races start, is rife with pollutants.
Flood Damage at Ruidoso Downs
“If we can get Mother Nature to cooperate, I would say two weeks,” Baugh said of the timeline for hosting the Thoroughbreds in Ruidoso. “We’ll have to go down to the bottom of the six-furlong course and take all that stuff off.”
Commissioners expressed concern about relying on Mother Nature’s cooperation, especially as the region enters the monsoon season.
“It’s unrealistic to think you can resurface a track when you’re dealing with a monsoon,” Baugh said. “We’re experiencing things that this region has never seen before.”
Equestrians have voiced their concerns about not only having a place to race horses, but also to train them. Baugh said he would advise against working with horses at Ruidoso’s Thoroughbred track at this time, and the NMRC wants to see any consistent results from the study by the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Testing Laboratory.
“I think it’s in the interest of everyone involved to make sure that the base has a lot of integrity, so we’ll wait for that,” said NMRC executive director Izzy Trejo. “They’re going to give us industry standards, all the tracks are different. I think if we saw a big difference in measurements, a normal person could tell that this track is inconsistent.”
“The biggest thing I hear from our trainers is lack of training days,” said Thoroughbred owner Phil Sanchez. “Because they’re athletes, and they can’t train, you run the risk of injury.”
He went on to remind the board that not having workout records for an extended period of time is a red flag for HISA, causing more paperwork and stress for the owner down the road.
“We worry about the horses. We raise our own kids,” said another rider. “We don’t want to send a horse down, put it on the track, and then have it fail right there. There’s too much at stake on every level.”
Commissioner John Buffington said he was concerned about the number of thoroughbred races held at Ruidoso during the competition period and the situation was made worse by the lack of access to the track.
“We need to do something to help the Thoroughbred group, and it is thought that Quarter Horses will be ready to run soon,” he said.
Officials from Albuquerque said they will consider what is needed to initiate the meeting and will respond to NMRC by July 5.
With the idea of holding Quarter Horse racing in Ruidoso and Thoroughbred racing at the same time in Albuquerque, Commissioner Billy Smith expressed concerns about staffing.
“The gate crew, all the stewards,” Smith said, “everyone who comes to Ruidoso goes to each track, most of them. How are we going to staff both tracks?”
Sanchez countered, “We’ve done that in the past. This is an emergency here, so we have to treat it as an emergency.”
New Mexico Horse Breeders Association President Jay Taylor then proposed the idea of racing on Friday and Saturday at one track and Sunday and Monday at the other to help with staffing. He also expressed the importance of keeping the Quarter Horse race in Ruidoso to help with the number of sales attendees. Trejo also voiced the commission’s commitment to staffing the meet.
Racing at Ruidoso Downs
“If that plan is implemented, the agency will do everything possible to staff another race at another location,” Trejo said. “It would be difficult, but we can use, through our role, to use alternative stewards.”
However, holding a meeting in Albuquerque could take weeks and cost about $35,000 a day to host, an expense they had not previously budgeted for. The cost of this meeting would have to be worked out between Ruidoso, Albuquerque and NMRC.
“If Mother Nature cooperates, I think (Ruidoso) can get back up and running faster than we’re putting people through these hardships,” Baugh said.
However, the commission and industry stakeholders remain wary of proceeding without a plan B.
“We don’t know what Mother Nature is going to do,” Sanchez said. “If she comes next week and floods (Ruidoso) again, we’re back to square one. We know Albuquerque won’t flood.
“This is an emergency here. At least for the Thoroughbreds, they need to run. They can’t sit back and do nothing. … I think we have to be prepared and at least try to make this happen in Albuquerque.”
