Racing commission denies application

The New Mexico Racing Commission, citing the declining health of the state’s horse-racing industry, on Thursday unanimously denied a license application from Coronado Partners to build a racetrack and casino on Tucumcari’s east side.

The attorney and one of the principals for Coronado Partners said he would appeal the decision to the same district judge who ordered the commission to make a decision on the application.

The commissioners’ 4-0 action followed a closed executive session of about an hour to discuss the application for the sixth and final racing license in New Mexico.

The commission faced a court-mandated Nov. 2 deadline to decide on Coronado’s application.

Clovis did not have an application before the commission, but has previously applied and some community leaders remain interested.

Curry County Commissioner Tom Martin attended Thursday’s meeting.

Martin said the commission’s decision on Coronado Partners “did not rule out a sixth license” going to Clovis or another future applicant.

But Martin also said he spoke with Ismael Trejo, executive director of the New Mexico Racing Commission, after the meeting who “indicated” the issuance of a sixth license is “unlikely” to occur “any time soon.”

Commission Chairman Sam Bregman, who presided over the meeting via videoconference, said after reviewing Coronado Partners’ application and documents associated with it, he was inclined to reject it.

“At this time, I don’t believe it is in the public interest or health of the industry to grant this license,” Bregman said.

Bregman said New Mexico’s horse racing industry had seen continuing declines in the number of horses and races since the commission first rejected Coronado’s application in 2018.

“I don’t believe the industry is healthy enough to support a sixth license,” he said. “The industry has only gotten tougher.”

John Buffington, the only other commissioner to speak during the meeting, also said it wasn’t in the best interest to grant the license.

Coronado Partners principal Warren Frost, an attorney from Logan, said Friday in a phone interview he was “disappointed but not surprised” by the commission’s decision.

“We fully expected them to deny the license,” Frost said.

“Now, we’ll be asking the district court to overturn that decision.”

Before the decision, the commission’s general counsel, Richard Bustamante, listed documents that commissioners had reviewed with the application.

Frost objected, saying the commission had not reviewed Coronado’s updated application and its new material.

“For some reason, they decided they would look at only the 2018 application,” Frost said Friday. “We filed updates in April 2021 and the beginning of this month — updated financial information, updated option agreements, things of that nature. With a 2018 application, a lot of things have happened since then.”