{"id":53691,"date":"2020-05-28T16:43:46","date_gmt":"2020-05-28T22:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-mexico-horse-track-eases-into-racing-amid-restrictions\/"},"modified":"2020-05-28T22:43:46","modified_gmt":"2020-05-28T22:43:46","slug":"new-mexico-horse-track-eases-into-racing-amid-restrictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-mexico-horse-track-eases-into-racing-amid-restrictions\/","title":{"rendered":"New Mexico horse track eases into racing amid restrictions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Miguel
Miguel (Hugo Perez) walks Mine That Bird (Sunday Rest) in the paddock at Sunland Park Racetrack, New Mexico, in a scene from the movie \u201ci50.\u201d<\/span>Courtesy photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) \u2014 Live horse racing has resumed in New Mexico, but there are no spectators in the stands, and only online and drive-thru wagering is allowed under an ongoing public health order aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

Some state racing regulators expressed concerns during a meeting Thursday that online and curbside betting represents only a fraction of the revenue that usually makes up the handle, and that\u2019s putting pressure on track owners.<\/p>\n

For example, live spectators make up at least half of what is usually bet on races at Ruidoso Downs.<\/p>\n

Home to one of the world\u2019s richest quarter-horse races, the southern New Mexico track on Memorial Day weekend hosted the first races in the state since the season was curtailed months ago because of public health restrictions.<\/p>\n

The season started at Sunland Park earlier this year but soon was put on hold. SunRay Park in northwestern New Mexico never got to run any of its scheduled races.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really, really hurting financially all these tracks and we need to have their welfare at the top of our minds as well as the horsemen and the breeders,\u201d Commissioner Billy Smith said during the meeting. \u201cIt affects everybody. It kind of rolls downhill. They get hurt, we get hurt, the horsemen get hurt, the breeders get hurt. Everybody gets hurt off of something like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commission Chairwoman Beverly Bourguet said officials at Ruidoso Downs have taken on the challenge of running live races under strict new protocols and the reality of a much smaller handle despite a hit to its own pocketbook. She did not specify how much it was costing and the track did not immediately return a message seeking comment.<\/p>\n

More races at Ruidoso are scheduled for this weekend. The track has put in place protocols that include daily temperature and health screenings. Everyone at the track also must wear a face covering.<\/p>\n

Racing Commission Executive Director Izzy Trejo said it was with short notice that staff came together to gear up for the resumption of racing. He and others said they\u2019re hopeful spectators will be allowed in the stands soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know that it\u2019s inevitable that we get that live handle and that we get these casinos up and running soon so we\u2019ll just wait for that time to come. We\u2019re anxious for that time to come,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has targeted June 1 for the easing of more restrictions as state health officials have said coronavirus infections and deaths remain below peak levels. It\u2019s not clear whether casinos and tracks will be part of the next wave of re-openings and if so, at what capacity they would be allowed to operate.<\/p>\n

At Ruidoso, Trejo said staff were embarking Thursday on the second round of out-of-competition drug testing of horses. He said testing will continue but might be limited later on this year as funding for the effort is expected to shrink due to depressed revenues and limited handles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re certainly going to pick our spots wisely in where we think we\u2019ll get some suspect horses tested,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Online, drive-thru wagering is allowed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2343],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-53691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-sports-group"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53691"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=53691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}