Horse racing is set to return to Ruidoso Downs Race Track and Casino on Friday, Saturday and Sunday as the village of Ruidoso tries to regain some normalcy after two fires ravaged the community.
Horse racing was canceled last weekend, just days after the fires started on June 17.
New Mexico Racing Commision on return
Izzy Trejo, who is the executive director of the New Mexico Racing Commission, said the decision to resume racing was left up to the racetrack and community in Ruidoso. Trejo added a main concern for the commission was the safety of the horses.
“We wanted to make sure the horses were fit to run and weren’t dealing with things such as respiratory issues and pneumonia,” Trejo said. “Not all the places the horses evacuated too allowed them to train, but fortunately it was only a few days that some horses didn’t train fully. There are four vets on the grounds and the commission is satisfied with progress being made. The safety of the horses was important to everyone involved.”
Rainbow trials
The track is home to many of quarter horse racing’s most prestigious events, including the $1 million Rainbow Futurity, the second jewel of the sports Triple Crown series. On Friday and Saturday, more than 320 horses will head to the starting gate for 34 trial races between Friday and Saturday to determine the field for the Rainbow Futurity, which will be run on July 14.
Several horsemen who had stables operating at Ruidoso evacuated their horses to various places around New Mexico when the fires appeared to threaten the facility.
Entries for the Rainbow Futurity trials, as well as the Rainbow Derby and Rainbow Oaks, were taken last weekend.
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Hezgothelook Z won the $1 million Ruidoso Futurity earlier this month and looks to become only the second quarter horse Triple Crown winner in the history of the sport.
Trained by Toby Keeton, Hezgothelook will race in the 11th trial on Saturday’s card, one of 17 trials on the card. The five fastest qualifiers from Saturday will be paired with the five fastest qualifiers on the Friday card and will receive an automatic berth in the Rainbow Futurity which will be run at a distance of 400 yards.
On Sunday, the Rainbow Oaks and Rainbow Derby trials will take place for 3-year-olds. The Oaks is solely for fillies. The first five trials are for the fillies going 440 yards and races six through 13 are the Rainbow Derby trials. The top 10 fastest horses in the Oaks and Derby will qualify for the finals in two weeks.
Headlining the Rainbow Oaks are Running to the Moon for trainer Heath Taylor, Asscher for trainer Marc Jungers and Tempting Barbie for trainer Marco Flores,
Running to the Moon was second in the Heritage Place Oaks, Asscher won the Los Alamitos Oaks and Tempting Barbie was second in the West Texas Derby.
Among the top horses in the Rainbow Derby trials are Lets Leave, who is trained by Eric Valenzuela, Dark Nme, who is trained by Romeo Mireles and Cowboys Gun Z for trainer Michael Joiner.
Lets Leave qualified for the Ruidoso Derby, Dark Nme won the Rainbow and Texas Classic Futurities and Cowboys Gun Z won last year’s All American Futurity.
What are they saying
“The fires were tough for the community and it was hard to see all the damage that was done,” trainer Eric Valenzuela said. ‘Hopefully, having horse racing back in the community will help people and bring them something positive, We as horsemen are grateful to be back and for everything that people did to make it happen. My horses are doing fine. We all had to make adjustments. We’ll move forward and continue to do our best to help the community.”
“People in Ruidoso have been so caring,” said Jungers, who lost his home in Alto due to the fires. “People are watching out for one another. I was having dinner at the Alto Cafe with family and the owner bought us dinner and the waitress wouldn’t take our tip. People are doing great things for each other. One of our owners stepped up and helped us with housing. We’re glad to be back, the horses are doing great in my bar, the air quality has been good.”
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Racetrack steps up to help community
Ruidoso Downs Race Track has created a special account for members of the horse racing industry to make a donation for victims of the recent South Fork and Salt Fires in the Ruidoso area.
“The entire community has been impacted—we have a number of our local residents that have lost their homes,” General Manager Rick Baugh said. “Ruidoso Downs will provide $20,000 in seed money to open the account and we challenge all members of the racing industry to help by making a tax-deductible contribution to the account that will go directly to victims of the recent fires.”
The account will be easy to access through www.raceruidoso.com and the track’s Facebook and social media pages. Donations can also be made by calling the race track at 575-378-4431.
“While we are excited to be moving forward with our racing season starting this weekend, we also want to be leaders in the community when it comes to helping our neighbors,” Baugh added.
The money donated through Ruidoso Downs Race Track will be turned over to the Community Foundation of Lincoln County, a well-established local charitable agency that is offering immediate assistance to fire victim families.
In addition to the race track’s seed-money, the American Quarter Horse Association has graciously made the first off-campus donation of $20,000.
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Felix F. Chavez can be reached at fchavez@elpasotimes.com; @Fchavezeptimes on X
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Horse racing returns to Ruidoso Downs race track after wildfires
