Despite more flooding, Ruidoso Downs plans to resume racing Friday

Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico plans to race as scheduled Friday, as crews are making progress repairing a section of the track surface that was impacted by flash flooding due to a storm in the area on Tuesday.

A track official said more flooding was in the forecast for Wednesday.

The weather pattern in the mountainous area has been volatile since last month, with the start of two wildfires. Flash flooding followed, and the storm Tuesday was a second water event that, like the first, impacted the racing surface.

“Yesterday afternoon we received another flood again from the burn scars and we handled it as well as one could expect for the volume of water that we received,” Rick Baugh, general manager of Ruidoso Downs, said Wednesday. “We’re expecting another flood event any minute. We’re ready for that one, but hopefully, after that, we can start putting the track back together and be ready for racing this weekend.”

The area impacted Tuesday was the top of the turn past the finish line, Baugh said. It’s the same area impacted by prior flooding.

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“The Rio Ruidoso [river] runs through the center of the infield and that’s what’s causing the flooding due to the debris and burn scar from the Salt fire and the South Fork fire,” Baugh said.

“We were prepared. We hauled material in and we screened it. Everything’s ready to go. Our base has been amazing through all this. We just have to put the cushion back on.”

Baugh expects Ruidoso to be able to open the track for training Friday morning. First post for Friday’s card is 12:30 p.m. Mountain.

It’s a significant weekend of racing for Ruidoso, which puts on the $1 million Rainbow Futurity for Quarter Horses on Sunday. Hezgothelook Z, winner of the Ruidoso Futurity, will be looking to take the second leg of the track’s Triple Crown series of rich 2-year-old stakes for Quarter Horses that concludes with the All American Futurity.

Ruidoso is racing Quarter Horses only at this time as the track has had to work on its six-furlong chute that received a new round of debris with the flooding Tuesday.

“The Quarter Horse chute has been untouched,” Baugh said. “We’ve been able to control that.”

Representatives of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority were tentatively scheduled to inspect the surface for Thoroughbred racing on July 21, but that date was set before the new developments on Tuesday, according to a representative of the New Mexico Racing Commission.

Baugh was hoping for a mild weather pattern Wednesday and beyond, so progress can continue on the track – and for the sake of the hard-hit community of Ruidoso.

“Mother Nature, I don’t know who made her mad, but I wish they’d stop,” he said.

The Ruidoso Downs meet runs through Sept. 2.

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