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that have gone on in racing with respect to drug use and cheating. We’ve had leading trainers indicted and banned from racing and all that sort of bad publicity, and I think the luster of racing at Ruidoso had faded a bit with all that stuff.
“One of the things that they charged me with was to clean up the policies around prevention, testing and deterrence,” True continued. “We are working closely with the New Mexico Racing Commission to enforce the rules that we have on the books now and looking for ways to enhance our detection and enforcement capabilities. I hate to lead off a discussion about new things with that, but it’s really one of the main things that they want done.”
True acknowledged that a perception existed in the past of the track having lax security and cheaters entering the starting gates.
“The new owners came in saying, ‘Let’s clean it up,’” True said.
In addition to excluding trainers from participating in racing at Ruidoso, the track stepped up security efforts. A perimeter fence was erected around the backside, a receiving barn was built to increase surveillance prior to race time, and the security officers won’t all be of the two-legged variety as canine units are being brought in to patrol.
“While it’s a common practice to have
a receiving barn in places like California, Oklahoma and other states, as well as in Thoroughbred racing, there has not been a receiving barn in New Mexico until now,” True said. “We’ll institute the receiving barn policies here where horses will gather prior to going to the paddock to increase that surveillance time.”
Last year, New Mexico passed new rules for out-of-competition testing which went into effect July 1. The track is working closely with the NMRC on those policies and plans to support the testing through funding, but will not conduct testing on its own. With some of the sport’s richest futurities and derbies taking place at the
The new Ruidoso Downs ownership group, All American Ruidoso Downs LLC, consists of John Andreini, Narciso “Chicho” Flores, Johnny Trotter and Stan Sigman.
track, Ruidoso Downs also plans to continue working with the American Quarter Horse Association and utilizing the AQHA integrity teams with respect to test barn equipment and facilities. The track is employing Ruidoso Downs police, Ruidoso police and the Lincoln County Sheriff ’s Department to assist in security efforts.
“These officers will be using canine patrol in a limited but effective way to deter and eject bad actors,” True said. “We brought those three police agencies in to talk about how we can cooperate, utilize their capabilities and enhance and facilitate the use of canine units here.”
“We have excluded a trainer that we believe to be one of the bad actors, and we have taken a pretty hard look at our stall applications,” True stated. “We’re giving stalls to people who we think will participate here and who have
exhibited good behavior in the recent past. With respect to security, drug detection and prevention, and testing, we think we’ve got a pretty good program in place.
“I think we’ve established the message that we’re not going to tolerate bad actors,” True emphasized. “We reserve the right to exclude others as the need arises. The integrity of the sport is everything, as we all know, and that’s what we’re striving to preserve. I can’t tell you that we’re 100 percent done. We haven’t done
all that we are going to do with respect to improving the integrity of racing, and some
may question or challenge our actions or our intentions. But I can tell you that it’s all about the sport. It’s all about putting Quarter Horse racing in the forefront of all horseracing in terms of creating a fair and honest playing field.”
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