(The following letter is an opinion registered by one of our NMHA member and probably heartfelt by others.)

Shame on you, New Mexico Racing Commission, Gaming Control Board and double shame on you, Governor Bill Richardson!

Yes, shame on all of you for hurting horse racing in New Mexico, the town of Raton, and the State of New Mexico. You asked how did we hurt these three entities? We’ll start with Governor Bill Richardson. In 2007, Governor Richardson enacted the Indian Gaming Compacts that limited one more racetrack in the state. These compacts run through June 30 of 2037. What gave you the right, Governor Richardson, to hold a business hostage for 30 years? Racing is part of the agricultural foundation of the State of New Mexico. No one in this world should have the right to place a 30-year moratorium on any industry unless it was the industry that hurts the people that are involved in it, the state in which in originates, or the general population of that state. Indeed, the Governor of the State of New Mexico did this to New Mexico horse horsing, and then, Governor Richardson, after this was done, you touted the village of Raton to seek a racetrack in the municipality. You also did the same thing in Tucumcari. You did exclude one major track that still exists in the State of New Mexico, although it has not run for many years, which is the Downs at Santa Fe. By doing this touting, your Racing Commission received three viable applications for a racetrack; for Raton, Tucumcari, and the Down at Santa Fe. Not to belabor a point, after months and months of deliberation, a non-U.S. citizen was allotted the license to begin construction of a race track in Raton. A key investor in the track at Raton was an individual that received millions of dollars from investments that were made by state agencies in which the state agencies lost all of their investment capital. This in many people’s viewpoint was swindling the State of New Mexico. Then the façade of getting the track built began. With missed deadlines, failure to meet more missed deadlines, and on and on until the Gaming Control Board, finally on May 4, 2010, withdrew the license. I think we all know the history of what went on at Raton with the substandard temporary building being place, liens on the property for non-payment to the general contractor and on and on. This is the fault and the shame of Gaming Control Board and the Racing Commission. The people of Raton had the biggest hoax played on them that is unconscionable and downright cruel. The horsemen of the State of New Mexico likewise had the same done to them.

The Downs at Santa Fe could have been a viable racetrack because it still exists. The horsemen used the horse track for training in 2008 and 2009. The barn structure is sound. Truly, it does needs some TLC and it needs to be brought up to speed and code in electrical, probably water, but these are things that if the license were granted to the Downs at Santa Fe would have been done and the horsemen of the State of New Mexico would have had a chance to begin an abbreviated meet in 2009 and a complete meet of 60 days 2010. But as everything else in this state, this turned out to be a political three-ring circus. The Racing Commission, marching to the drumbeat of the Governor, also the Gaming Control Board, until it began to be an embarrassment to the entire State of New Mexico. Then finally the track at Raton was taken off life support after 18 months of false promises and downright failure to perform.

Again, shame, shame on all of you for allowing this to happen. You cheated a community in this state, you cheated the state out of gaming revenues that could have come from the Downs at Santa Fe where the majority of the population is in the middle of the state, not in a far Northeast small community or another small community named Tucumcari that would have been a detriment rather than a positive for racing.

In the State of New Mexico, we have politics in every facet of our every day living. We need to get the politicians out of industries. It’s not this pay-to-play stuff that citizens want anymore; they want truly elected individuals to do best for their state.

Hopefully, when there is a change in administration the new governor of this state will not repeat the travesties that have been done to one of the top five major agricultural industries in the state, and have enough sense to appoint commissioners that are not influenced by politicians, both for the Racing Commission and the Gaming Control Board, and follow their own rules and regulations that is in their statutes and rules.

A Kneale Foutz