Page 54 - May 2018 Speedhorse

ROPING NEW CUSTOMERS
Near the sale arena, visitors will find an improved parking lot to accommodate horse sale traffic and team ropers that utilize the covered arena, too. After a successful World Series of Team Roping event at the facility last summer, management scheduled three roping events for 2018.
“There’s about a four-acre parking area that’s all being improved with new gravel and a new parking area,” True said. “We’ve got three World Series team roping events scheduled for this summer and that parking lot will be integral to making those things successful. The grading, the equipment and the time was not an inexpensive effort. We feel like it’s a long-term investment.
“Our roping events are going to happen Memorial Day weekend, Fourth of July weekend and at the end of July,” True added. “While those are typically already pretty big days, we will be utilizing another section of the facility that hasn’t in the past been utilized. We had 1,500 teams rope here last year and to the extent we can repeat that three more times during the summer will get more people to the racetrack. With the roping during the day,
racing in the afternoon and the casino open at night, it all works together.”
To attract more people to the track, several new promotions have been added to the calendar.
“One of the things that I did when I first got here in August of last year – and we didn’t close on the racetrack until October – so, during the first few months, I looked at the promotional calendar from a 15,000- to 20,000-foot level,” True said. “I tried to pinpoint the weekends which were soft. I look at the summer season as a 15-week season. I looked at the attendance, the food and beverage sales, the casino play, the overall live handle and looked at all those metrics in combination on a weekly schedule and pinpointed some days that were soft. We’ve added some events that I think will help us in some of those soft days.”
Red Stegall, actor, musician, poet and stage performer who focuses on American Western and country music genres, will help kick off the 2018 season.
“Opening weekend, we’ll have what we are calling ‘An Evening with Red Steagall,’” True said. “We’re going to hold that event over in the sale auditorium, where we sell the horses.
We’re going to make that into a music venue. That will be a fundraiser for the All American Ruidoso Downs Foundation. We’ll have Red in there Sunday evening doing, what I would call
a private, intimate show, and he’ll attend the following Monday and do something for us with a celebration of the flag in honor of Memorial Day. We’ll have a giant American flag out on the racetrack like they do at the football games.”
In June, the festivities will begin with a New Mexican Fiesta event. To capitalize on West Texas’ connection to Ruidoso as a summer retreat and
the large pool of students and alumni from Texas Tech, Red Raider Weekend is scheduled for the second weekend in June. The popular band Flatland Cavalry will perform in concert during the weekend. Over Father’s Day weekend, June 15-17, Ruidoso is using a direct mail campaign to lure customers.
“We are sending out 10,000 mystery mutual vouchers that will be valid on Father’s Day weekend, and those vouchers will be worth at least $5 and as much as $5,000,” True said. “We hope to drive some traffic to the racetrack that weekend in particular. The first four weekends, we’re kind of heavy on promotions.”
The steeple is in place and work continues on the new Ruidoso Downs chapel, which has been relocated to allow the public access 24 hours per day.
52 SPEEDHORSE May 2018
Ty Wyant, Ruidoso Downs