Judge rejects Tucumcari racino lawsuit

An Albuquerque judge Friday rejected a lawsuit by Coronado Partners against the New Mexico Racing Commission to force it to issue a sixth and final license for a horse-racing track and casino in Tucumcari.

District Judge Nancy Franchini on Friday morning issued an 18-page ruling in favor of the commission.

Citing state law, Franchini ruled the New Mexico Legislature in 1978 authorized the racing commission to grant or reject licenses.

“I’m very disappointed,” Logan attorney Warren Frost, one of Coronado’s principals, said in a phone interview Friday. “I thought we had an excellent argument.”

Coronado’s lawsuit, filed in late 2021, initially sought to prod the racing commission to issue a decision on its application.

The commission, which was reorganized in 2019, had refused to make a decision on a sixth license after months of public hearings in 2018. Other applicants for the license were from Clovis and Lordsburg.

Franchini in June 2022 granted Coronado’s request for a writ of mandamus against the commission and ordered it to make a decision on the Tucumcari application. A writ of mandamus compels another entity to perform its official duties.

Franchini in February dismissed the commission’s bid to dismiss Coronado’s lawsuit.

Lawyers for Coronado and the commission had been scheduled to give oral arguments on the case on Monday afternoon.

Coronado proposed a horse-racing track and casino on Tucumcari’s east side that would employ at least 500 people and generate up to $55 million in revenue by 2025.

When asked this was the end of the road for the long-sought Tucumcari racetrack and casino, Frost replied: “I don’t know. It may be.”

"It shouldn't be so hard to bring 500 jobs to your community," Frost said later.

We’ll have additional details in the next edition of the Quay County Sun.