Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Those wondering when the New Mexico Racing Commission might decide whether Tucumcari is awarded a horse-racing license now can circle a tentative date — Dec. 6.
“I emphasize the word ‘tentative,’” Commission Executive Director Izzy Trejo told the Eastern New Mexico News on Friday. “A tentative date, certainly set in pencil, of Dec. 6 ... that’s the date that we’re gearing towards.
“This could all be subject to change,” Trejo added. “We’re missing a lot of variables in the equation.”
Logan attorney Warren Frost, a frontman for Coronado Partners that wants to bring a an $80 million racetrack and casino to Tucumcari, said during a telephone interview Friday with the Quay County Sun he attended the commission’s meeting Thursday and learned the agency wants to interview all the license applicants — one in Tucumcari, one in Lordsburg and three in Clovis — on Nov. 28. That meeting would be open to the public.
Frost said the Dec. 6 decision date also was announced by the commission during last week's meeting.
The time and place for interviews hasn’t been announced. Frost said it’s his understanding the Nov. 28 hearing will give applicants a chance “to make closing arguments,” then commission members will ask them about financing, proposed racetrack facilities and other issues that might sway the decision.
Frost also said Native American tribes involved in New Mexico’s gaming industry also will be invited to the hearing to express their positions. The Mescalero Apache tribe in Mescalero, which owns the Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort and Casino, opposes a horse-racing track and casino in Clovis, he said.
Trejo said an independent feasibility study of the license applicants in Tucumcari, Clovis and Lordsburg should be completed by mid-November. Convergence Strategy Group of New Orleans is completing the study.
The racing commission’s next regular monthly meeting is Nov. 15 and might continue to a second day, Trejo said.
“Just two long days for the commissioners to evaluate a lot of what they’ve taken in so far and then more,” he said. “It may be an executive session all day; I’m not sure how it’s going to play out.”
Frost, who helped lead a bid for a horse-racing license for Tucumcari 10 years ago that was awarded to Raton, said the commission didn’t conduct final interviews or ask for an independent study of the applications a decade ago.
“I think the racing commission is being very thorough about the applications,” he said. “They want to make sure whoever they pick has their act together and that it’s best for horse racing in New Mexico.”
When asked whether the interviews and study bode well for Tucumcari’s chances, Frost replied: “Absolutely.”
“Ten years ago, the winner was not based on who had the best project, but upon politics,” he said. “I think the more the racing commission wants to get into the weeds on these applications, that’s great for us. That’s what we want. All the facts point to us.”