By Billy Donati
KRTN
The NM Racing Commission has put a temporary halt to the application process for New Mexico’s sixth horse racetrack at it’s monthly meeting in Albuquerque on Thursday, July 19.
The Commission surprised a lot of people when it announced in May that it had opened up the application process for the state’s sixth and final horse racing track, giving all potential applicants less than 60 days, July 30, to submit their proposals.
Raton City Manager Scott Berry attended the meeting and asked the commission to delay the awarding of the license for 90 days while Raton puts together a team. The Commission went into closed executive session to discuss the request and then when they came back into open session, informed Berry that the request was unanimously rejected.
Another request, however, offered up by four of the five current operating tracks, was unanimously accepted which will delay the issuance of the sixth license until a feasibility study is done on the impact of another horse track on the industry in New Mexico.
The notice sent out from the Commission read, “On July 19, 2018, the New Mexico Racing Commission put a halt to the application process to allow the Commission Staff the ability to review and determine whether or not they are able to conduct a Feasibility Study.
The Racing Commission is keeping the July 30, 2018 deadline not for the submission of applications, rather for a submission of a “Letter of Intent”. Therefore, any interested party who is intending or was intending to submit their application for that July 30th deadline, now must submit to the Racing Commission a “Letter of Intent” indicating the following:
1) The name of the entity that wishes to file an application.
2) The location within which the applicant wishes to submit for a new racetrack, i.e. name of city.
If a Letter of Intent is not submitted, that entity may not be given full consideration.
Regards,
Rosemary Garley
NM Racing Commission”
