Page 42 - New Mexico Horse Breeder, Fall

Doing It Faster
One of the biggest problems in catching cheaters in racing was the snail-like pace of the overall testing procedure.
How many times do you remember a horse getting a positive test after the trials of a race, but still running back in the finals? You know how it happened.
The split was sent off to the lab, while
due process meant the trainer and the horse were still among the racing population, going about life as if nothing was amiss. By the time results were returned on the split, the horse had already run in the finals. The situations stretched out for months or even longer.
Now, in New Mexico, everything is expedited, especially in cases involving Class I violations and/or multiple Class 2 violations. The stewards suspend summarily, horses go on the 60-day list and everything moves forward much faster.
“We changed labs after the Rainbow Futurity,” explained Trejo. “We now send a list of trial dates to the labs, letting them know we’re expecting them to move on the tests as soon as they get them. We also send a reminder email. We must have those results so that,
if necessary, we can keep a horse out of the finals. We can’t play this game successfully if we don’t have all the tools in place.”
Little Ol’ New Mexico
The award presented to NMRC in Hot Springs, Arkansas, on April 5 of this year was well-deserved and based on fact.
Yes. The numbers are positive; so positive that Trejo shares a conference call once each month with commissions in Montana, North Dakota, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona and Idaho. One participant, in one call, thanked New Mexico for creating a template to return integrity to the sport of racing.
How many people reading those brutal articles on March 25, 2012, would have thought such a thing possible?
Only Group Efforts Can Succeed
Make no mistake about it – Trejo did none of this on his own.
Remember the comments posted on the Internet when his hiring was announced? One person said he’d be nothing but a
puppet, doing the bidding of the NMRC and the tracks. He would have no decision-making power, they said.
Those predictions could have become reality, but they didn’t because Trejo
received the full support of Chairman Ray Willis, Vice-Chair Gayla McCulloch and commissioners Dr. Leonard Blach, Ken Corazza and Dr. Jerry Cosper.
Thankfully and gratefully, the cooperation and support didn’t stop there. If it had, all the efforts of the NMRC would have been doomed to failure.
The 2018 racing season at Ruidoso Downs, the jewel in New Mexico’s racing circuit, began under new management with the equal partnership of Stan Sigman (spokesperson for the group), Johnny Trotter, John Andreini
and Narciso “Chicho” Flores. Sadly, Andreini passed away suddenly and unexpectedly in August of this year.
The groundwork of cooperation with the NMRC and Trejo made tremendous strides forward in 2017 from Ruidoso Downs, which spent 30-years under the ownership of Ruidoso Downs Racing, Inc. (R.D. Hubbard). The most significant movements were made in out- of-competition testing, establishing new race day medication standards, and creating a more level playing field. The momentum generated by those earlier were revved up under the new management of Ruidoso Downs and their partnership with the NMRC.
Members of the new ownership made certain all racing program rules and requirements
were well documented and circulated prior to the beginning of trials for the Triple Crown. The goal was to state, clearly the rules and parameters governing participation in New Mexico racing. First and foremost, everyone would abide by the same rules.
Just like the NMRC, the new management at Ruidoso Downs was dead serious about presenting a sport that operated according to principles of integrity, honesty, truth, trust and consistency.
For starters, it was made perfectly clear that any race horse stabled at Ruidoso Downs, any horse with papers in the Ruidoso racing office, and any horse nominated to a stakes race (whether stabled on the grounds or not) would be subject to out-of-competition testing at any time selected by a licensed NMRC personnel.
Any horse testing positive for a prohibitive substance during OOCT testing (including any Class A drug, any blood or gene doping agents, clenbuterol, or any androgenic-steroidal agents as defined by the ARCI Uniform Classification Guidelines) will be put on the stewards’ list for no less than 60 days and,
at the end of that period, the horse must test clean before re-entering competitive racing.
Post-race testing of blood and urine, and OOCT using blood urine or hair testing will be performed on any horse qualifying for a graded stakes race.
No horse may compete in a stakes final, time trial or consolation if said horse has tested positive for any prohibited substance since its arrival at Ruidoso, or within 45-days of entry.
If a top 10 stakes qualifier becomes ineligible to compete, a full field of 10 will
be maintained by elevating the next fastest qualifier on the list.
Nobody was playing games. This was
true grit stuff and nobody was blinking. The effectiveness of a connected shield of cooperation is amazing in terms of what it can accomplish.
Running the Day-To-Day
All of the new Ruidoso owners are successful, experienced businessmen as well as serious racing participants. What they did not have, however, was the intense, firsthand knowledge of the complexities of running a racetrack.
After extensive interviewing, they turned to Jeff True, a 30-year industry veteran. He would wear the title of president and general manager of All American Ruidoso Downs Racing, LLC (AARDR).
True is a native Texan and a graduate of the horse production and management program
at Tarleton State University in Texas. He’s held management positions with AmTote, United Totalizator, Los Alamitos Race Course, Santa Anita, served as executive director of the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Racing Association and held the same position with the Texas QH Association. He’s lived the past 20-years in Los Alamitos, California.
True had no prior connections or allegiances to New Mexico and/or to Ruidoso Downs. Such connections and allegiances, however, were not what the new Ruidoso ownership/management team was looking for as requisites in their new president/general manager.
“I very seldom came to Ruidoso,” admitted True. “Maybe two or three times over the past 20-years. That was it.”
That was fine because what Sigman and the entire team wanted was someone who was deeply knowledgeable and deeply dedicated to the sport of racing and its betterment. It didn’t take long for them to decide True was their person. As Sigman noted, “Jeff rose to the top very quickly.”
True left the starting line running. He’d studied numbers and percentages. He was intimately aware of problems and focused on solutions. That meant he and the entire group
40 New Mexico Horse Breeder