Commission Vote Rejects 2 Others
After an 18-year absence, horse racing is poised to return to Raton — bringing 600 slot machines along with it.
The New Mexico Racing Commission voted 5-0 Monday to deny racing license applications submitted by Raton’s competitors — Tucumcari and Pojoaque Pueblo — to host the state’s sixth and, for the foreseeable future, final racetrack/casino.
By deny ing those two applications, the governorappointed commission effectively handed the racino to Racing at Raton LLC, a group of investors headed by Canadian developer Michael Moldenhauer.
“I’m elated,” Moldenhauer said moments after the commission action. “It’s been five years we’ve been working at it. I think this is a great day for the city of Raton and the whole northeastern part of the state.
“Racing started in New Mexico in Raton ... and it’s great to see it finally come back to where its origins were,” Moldenhauer said.
La Mesa Park, which operated in Raton from 1946 to 1992, closed its doors before state lawmakers voted in 1997 to allow horse racing tracks to have slot machines — a move credited with saving the state’s racing industry.
When the state renegotiated its gaming compacts with tribes last year, which now extend through the year 2037, it agreed to cap the number of racinos in the state at six. The state now has five racinos.
Commissioners said Pojoaque Pueblo’s bid to reopen the shuttered Downs at Santa Fe wouldn’t f ly because of state regulations that prevent one track from offering simulcast betting while another track is conducting live racing — if the tracks are within 80 miles of one another.
That regulation would apply to the Downs at Santa Fe and the Downs at Albuquerque, even after the latter completes its planned move to Moriarty in 2010.
Though the regulation can be waived if both tracks agree to do so, the Downs at Albuquerque has said it has no intention of doing so, commission executive director Julian Luna told commissioners.
Tucumcari’s bid, headed by Albuquerque car dealer Don Chalmers, got a thumbs down because: It offered fewer racing dates and fewer stalls than Raton; it would be too close to the Downs at Albuquerque and Zia Park in Hobbs; it would create a “lack of geographical diversity” for horse racing; and it wanted a spring meet instead of a summer meet, which Raton could offer and spread out the state’s racing calendar.
“Well, certainly I’m disappointed, but I wish them all the luck in the world,” Chalmers said as the meeting concluded. “I think we put our best foot forward.”
Chalmers said he wasn’t sure why his bid to build a $55 million racino in economically challenged Tucumcari came up short.
“Some of the reasons they gave — race days, stalls — we had told them we were willing to go more if the demand was there,” he said. “But they (Raton) went through the same process, and they got the votes.”
One of Chalmers’ partners, Larry Tombari with the Las Vegas, Nev.-based Friedmutter Group, said he didn’t buy the commission’s argument that, if Texas were to expand gaming opportunities for its residents, it would have hurt Tucumcari more than it would Raton.
“The two most successful tracks, by far, in New Mexico get their business from Texas,” Tombari said after the meeting, referring to Sunland Park and Zia Park.
“Texas is not going to legalize gaming in our lifetime. Obviously, if that would have affected us, it would affect the two most significant tracks in New Mexico, but they don’t seem to be having any issues at all,” Tombari said.
Tombari also said a letter of support for the Raton track submitted earlier this month by the state’s five existing racinos could have been a deciding factor.
“It must have had some impact because most of the other factors that seemed to be important on the economic side seemed to be in our favor,” Tombari said.
The commission directed its staff to assist Raton “in the ongoing application process so that proper facilities are constructed and licenses issued, once qualified, so that live horse race meets are conducted in Raton, New Mexico, in the year 2010 and thereafter.”
