Ruidoso Downs proceeds with plan to race horses next weekend

Jun. 22—Ruidoso Downs Race Track is planning to reopen with live horse racing as early as Friday, though those plans are tentative as the community recovers from devastating wildfires this week.

The mountain communities of Ruidoso and Ruidoso Downs are under evacuation orders due to the South Fork and Salt fires, which ignited Monday to the north and south, respectively, of the neighboring towns. By Saturday morning, the fires had burned more than 24,000 acres, nearly 1,500 structures and were responsible for the deaths of at least two people, officials have stated.

More than 1,000 firefighters continue to fight the blazes and though containment Saturday was at 26% for the South Fork Fire and 7% for the Salt Fire, Village of Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford said in a Facebook post that the fire danger "seems to be out of the way."

Full-time residents of Ruidoso and Ruidoso Downs can begin to reenter the towns at 8 a.m. Monday.

Ruidoso Downs Race Track wasn't as immediately threatened by the fires as many other areas.

"The track is blessed to have not been impacted, but some of our employees lost their homes and we are working to help find them some temporary housing," said track General Manager Rick Baugh in a news release. "We are very appreciative of the firefighters and first responders including everyone that has kept much of the community protected. Hopefully we will be able to race in the near future to keep our commitment to our horsemen and employees."

In the news release, the track stated that race track officials and horse trainers at Ruidoso Downs have been working since Monday to ensure the safety of animals at the track, which included about 1,000 horses.

"We made arrangements for a complete evacuation of horses Monday night with other race tracks and nearby ranches and were ready just in case that was necessary," Baugh said. "Some trainers made the decision to evacuate on their own to move their horses and we did our best to accommodate them. We are currently feeding all horsemen and emergency personnel in our restaurant cantina daily and doing what we can to assist them while they care for their horses everyday."

The track announced Saturday that it plans to have trial races "as scheduled" this coming Friday and Saturday in advance of the $1 million Rainbow Futurity.

"We will make a final decision about when these trial races are held primarily based on the lifting of evacuation orders for the community but we are hopeful that is next weekend," Baugh said.

A total of 327 two-year-old quarter horses are entered for the 17 trial races. The top five fastest horses in the 400-yard sprints will advance to the Rainbow Futurity, which is scheduled to be run July 14.

Quarter horses are the sprinters of horse racing and Ruidoso Downs Race Track is home to several notable quarter horse racing events each summer. Labor Day Weekend is the All-American Futurity, which has a $3 million purse and is billed as the richest quarter horse race in the world.