Developers pitch plans for New Mexico track

Pete Herrera

Friday, Nov. 14, 2003 | 9:13 a.m.

ALBUQUERQUE -- West Texans for decades have streamed to Ruidoso to gamble. It's fertile territory, loaded with bettors, that the track owners of Ruidoso Downs don't want to share.

R.D. Hubbard and his partners at Ruidoso Downs argued on Thursday that they therefore should be awarded a contract to build and operate a proposed new racetrack at Hobbs -- or else the existing business near Ruidoso will suffer along with Lincoln County, which Hubbard's Zia Downs Partners say now benefits from $25 million in impacts from horse racing.

The state Racing Commission expects to award the license for the Hobbs track next week.

The Hubbard group said its background in racing gives it an edge over three other applicants -- Santa Fe art dealer Gerald Peters; former Santa Fe Downs owner Ken Newton, who is partnered with the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas; and Nevada businessman Shawn Scott.

"It's a specialized business, and we speak the language," Ruidoso Downs President Bruce Rimbo told the commission.

He said economic studies commissioned by the Ruidoso track show 25 percent of its customers come from West Texas and another 25 percent from southeastern New Mexico, where Hobbs is located.

He said 750,000 people live within 100 miles of Ruidoso.

"Folks, that's our fishing pond," he said, adding: "Walk through a Ruidoso parking lot and count the number of Texas license plates."

The studies show the Hobbs track would cut into Ruidoso Downs' casino revenue by 29 percent. If that happened, Ruidoso Downs might have to cut the number of live racing days from 61 to 43 to avoid reducing purse money.

Rimbo said awarding the group the Hobbs track as well would spare any cuts at Ruidoso.

"We'd have the opportunity to offset a lot of things," he said. "Our bottom line would be stronger, and I think there are ways that we could co-promote the two so that we could improve some things at Ruidoso and the impact wouldn't be as great."

Racing Commissoner Al Lucero said Rimbo seemed more worried about Ruidoso Downs than the plan for Hobbs.

"Are you going to try to protect Ruidoso or help Hobbs?" Lucero asked.

Rimbo responded: "You don't invest $43 million (on Hobbs) and treat it like a stepchild. What we do in Ruidoso we're going to do in Hobbs."

Rimbo also said Hubbard and a partner, Ed Allred, owner of Los Alamitos racetrack in California, are the only applicants who are horse owners and breeders. The two partners spent $1 million buying New Mexico yearlings this year, he said.

The Zia partners want a 53-day race meet at Hobbs starting in November 2005 at a track that would include 1,500 stalls and seating for nearly 3,000 fans.

Rimbo argued the Hubbard group didn't just "come out of the woodwork" with the advent of track slot machines.

"We're horsemen, not opportunists," he said.

Hubbard, Allred, Rimbo and Albuquerque Downs owner Paul Blanchard comprise the Zia Downs partnership, with a combined 115 years of horseracing experience, Rimbo said.

The partnership has the best site for the track and casino -- 640 acres across from the Lea County Events Center -- and close enough to Hobbs businesses that gamblers and racing fans will also spend their money in town, Rimbo said.

Scott, a Nevada and Louisiana businessman who leads the Lea Downs bidding group, has a proposal that differs from the other applicants in that he wants such things as a water park, an eight-screen movie theater, retail shops, an RV park and basketball courts as part of the Hobbs complex.

Scott has owned small casinos in Las Vegas, video poker truckstop casinos in Louisiana and in 1999, purchased Delta Downs in Louisiana.

He sold the Louisiana track two years later after helping lead a successful referendum to allow racetracks in that state to have casinos with slot machines.

Scott told the commission he sold Delta Downs because he did not have the capital to compete with the growth of riverboat and Indian casinos in Louisiana.

"I came to Hobbs because it's a market where we feel we can compete," he said.

Since selling Delta Downs he has become involved in racetracks in New York and Maine, Scott said.

Several Louisiana residents testified on his behalf. Jack Hebert, a retired policeman and current car dealer from Sulphur, La., said Scott saved horse racing in Louisiana with his campaign for slot machines.

"You have to decide who's suited to carry on racing in New Mexico," Hebert told the commission. "You need a man with new energy and new vision." He said that man was Scott.

Scott's application was rejected last year by the previous Racing Commission, but commissioners named earlier this year agreed to rehear his proposal.

Commissioners heard Wednesday from Newton and Peters.

Peters' group said it could have a temporary casino up and running by next June and is ready to conduct a 30-day live racing meet in November 2004.

Newton's casino would be in operation by December 2004 and a grand opening for the racetrack in November 2005. The Peters and Newton proposals call for 600 slot machines at the casino.