Officials of Arizona Downs in Prescott Valley told horsemen on Thursday that this Sunday’s card will be the last of the meet, according to a trainer present at the meeting, a statement confirmed later on Friday by the track’s general manager and through a press release issued by the track. The trainer, Scott Rollins, said on Friday morning that the officials told horsemen at the meeting that an investor behind the track had unexpectedly pulled out. The track later put out a release claiming that the suspension of racing was due to the potential impacts of a law that goes into effect on Aug. 27. That release said that controversy over the law had led to a lender being “unwilling to move forward.” Arizona Downs re-opened three weeks ago, with plans to race on weekends and holidays through Labor Day. The track, previously known as Yavapai Downs, was closed in 2010 but was bought out of bankruptcy court last year by partners that included Tom, Dave, and Mike Auther, along with Joe Jackson and former Kentucky Downs co-owner and general manager Corey Johnsen. The partners paid $3.2 million for the track and have said they spent $2 million on renovations to prepare it for simulcasting and live racing. In an interview after the release was issued, Ann McGovern, the track’s general manager, said that she hopes the suspension is only temporary, citing discussions the track’s officials are pursuing with local groups that are interested in seeing racing continue at the track. “We have a few live leads,” McGovern said. “We want to continue live racing. Maybe it’s only a weekend. Maybe we have to wait through July 4. But we want to keep racing, and we have a lot of community support.” According to the Arizona Downs release, the suspension is related to a threat by Turf Paradise in Phoenix to sue once the new state law goes into effect on Aug. 27. The law requires that any simulcast provider sell its signals to all tracks and OTB facilities in the state if it sells signals to any of Arizona’s licensees. It was passed earlier this month despite an ongoing feud over simulcast availability between the owners of Turf Paradise and Arizona Downs. The release specifically cites Monarch Content Management, the simulcast-marketing arm of The Stronach Group, which owns a number of high-profile racetracks across the U.S., including Santa Anita Park, which is popular in the Phoenix area. The release states that Monarch has refused to provide its content to Arizona Downs, but Scott Daruty, the president of the company, disputed that statement, saying that Monarch sells its signal to Arizona Downs but not all of the track’s off-track betting locations. Daruty said that Monarch objects to the new law because it takes away the rights of private businesses to reach their own deals, representing a restraint of trade. He also said that Arizona Downs had opened OTBs in direct proximity to OTBs operated by Turf Paradise, which was only serving to cannibalize handle, instead of growing the market. In Arizona, restaurants and bars can be licensed as OTB locations, and statewide there are more than 60 locations with simulcast operations, with the majority in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The OTBs offer simulcasting year-round. “The law would take away the [Interstate Horseracing Act] rights from the tracks and horsemen we represent,” Daruty said, citing the 1978 federal law governing interstate simulcasting. “If the law goes into effect, we would be required to sell our signal to every single location in the state, even where we don’t think it’s beneficial.” McGovern said that Arizona Downs has opened six OTBs, with a goal of operating 20 throughout the state. She said that the track has data that shows that overall handle has grown in the “market area” where Arizona Downs opened an OTB near an existing Turf Paradise OTB. “I think we’ve been treated unfairly by Monarch, and I think their existing relationship with Turf Paradise is leading to some bad business decisions,” she said. McGovern said that the track would continue to take wagers at its OTBs and at Arizona Downs, using signals provided by other simulcast brokers.  The re-opening of the track promised to lead to a nearly year-round racing circuit in Arizona, where Turf Paradise shuts down for the hot summer months. Prescott Valley is located north of Phoenix, in an area of the state where temperatures are generally 20 degrees cooler than downstate. In the past, upstate county fairs and Yavapai Downs – and its predecessor, the bull-ring Prescott Downs – gave the state the semblance of a year-round circuit. The news of the pending closure took horsemen by surprise, according to Rollins. A third-generation trainer in the Southwest, he had made the decision to run at Prescott this summer because of his connections to the state’s breeding community. “It was just so sudden,” Rollins said. “We’re all just crossing our fingers right now.”