Page 55 - May 2018 Speedhorse

In August, the track is joining forces with the Ruidoso Downs Village Merchants Association for the Chile the Kid Wine and Beer Festival. The cleverly titled celebration is a play on Billy the Kid and the famous Hatch green chiles.
“We’ll have craft beer, New Mexico wine makers, food and music,” True said. “We think that will be a fun weekend on August 3-4.”
Opening weekend, a new Jeep Compass will be given away through a casino promotion.
“We reformatted that promotion so that it hits all three days of the Memorial weekend,” True said. “We will give away a truck on Labor Day weekend, as we normally do.”
NEW AND IMPROVED
The Ruidoso Chaplaincy will be the beneficiary of the new security push at the track. A new chapel is being built to allow churchgoers to attend services without having to pass through security gates on the backside.
“What we’ve seen over the past couple of years is on Sundays during the race meet, you might have as many as 100-120 local residents come onto the backside going to church,”
True said. “I recognized that immediately
as a potential security issue – not that we’re necessarily worried about the churchgoers,
but if we’re going to have a secure backside we can’t have 100 unlicensed individuals driving
in every Sunday. Literally within three or four weeks, Stan and Johnny and multiple others had raised enough money to build a church in a new location. It’s at the bottom of the hill by the 550 chute. We’re going to move the security gate
90 degrees so when you go past the grandstand you can go straight to the church without going through a security gate. The old church building will be repurposed as a recreational center and meeting area for horsemen.”
In April, worship services were moved to the sale arena while construction on the new building progressed, and the new chapel is expected to open in late June.
Ruidoso Downs and the chaplaincy also joined together to improve restroom facilities on the backside.
“In partnership with the racetrack chaplaincy, we went in and renovated the three bathrooms and showers – both men’s and women’s – to improve the conditions because frankly they were pretty deplorable,” True said. “We’re putting in new plumbing, new shower stalls, new paint, new ceiling and a new sidewalk in front of one of them. We’ve improved the backside bathroom and shower facilities for the grooms, riders and people that use those facilities.”
Two additions were also made to the stakes schedule.
“The Dash For Speed Stakes, which is an open filly and mares stakes for Quarter Horses, and an open Thoroughbred stakes sprint have been added to the calendar,” True said. “We have so many paid races with nomination requirements in our stakes program, one of the things I want to do is open up that program
a little bit and get a few more open horses in here – aged horses. We’re looking at our aged Quarter Horse stakes program. The Gold Cup has fallen on some hard times. I’m looking at
a new format for that race in 2019. Expanding our aged Quarter Horse program will be a priority going forward.”
True is also looking at increasing the Ruidoso racing season from its traditional, current dates.
“We’re going to look at expanding the racing calendar in future years,” True said. “We don’t think we’re limited to that Memorial Day to Labor Day timeframe. I think we’ll be looking at the future to expand that where it makes sense if for no other reason than our casino does better when we’re racing live. September is great weather even though most horse racing kind
of falls off after Labor Day, we think we’ve got a couple more weeks in us and looking at the other side of the calendar and the Triple Crown season, the first weekend of May could be open territory for us. There’s a lot of things that
have to happen for us to expand into some of those calendar periods, but in terms of looking toward the future – expanding our calendar and expanding our open racing program to some degree are on the table.”
INVESTING FOR THE LONG TERM
True and the new ownership group recognize the importance of promoting both the racetrack and the casino.
“While slot players are not necessarily horse players and vice versa, our best 15 weeks at this facility are during live racing,” True said. “Our casino does better when we’re racing live and when we’ve got a lot of activity happening on both sides of the house. Casino revenues generate purses. That’s the bottom line. I’m really looking at this property as a whole, to get people here to do what they enjoy whether it’s private events, Chile the Kid wine event, roping, racing, casino, etc.
“The new owners didn’t buy this racetrack trying to get rich buying a racetrack,” True continued. “They are all successful businessmen doing their own things. They all own ranches, and breeding race horses is what they love to do with the money they make in other avenues. They really want to see this place reestablished as the summertime go-to destination in this part of the country, but also the best Quarter Horse racing in the world.”
True pointed out the similarities between Ruidoso and Saratoga Springs as summertime resort destination locations.
“We have what we think is the best racing program with our respective breeds,” True said. “And while Saratoga has probably 100 years advantage on us and they obviously have a
lot more handle than we do from a lot more locations, but in terms of what drives our business, it’s very similar. People love to come here and spend their summers. They love high- quality racing, and it’s a destination place where everybody wants to be in the summer.”
The All American Ruidoso Downs LLC group and track management are working to make Ruidoso a destination again.
“I look at this as probably a five-year turn- around project here – and maybe it’s a 10-year project to see real impact – but I think in three to five years we’ll see some significant changes that will really hit the bottom line. And hopefully in year one we will have started on the right path,” True said. “There’s a lot of activity going on here, and while we can’t get it all done in one year, we are making a big dent in things.”
“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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