ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Late on the evening of Sunday, July 21, Paul Blanchard, the owner of The Downs at Albuquerque, glanced at his phone, noticing a call from Johnny Trotter, his counterpart at Ruidoso Downs in southern New Mexico. The conversation focused on the devastating flash floods that forced Ruidoso Downs to cancel the final five races the preceding day. The Ruidoso meeting could not go forward. The flooding was too severe. During their conversation, Blanchard and Trotter swiftly developed plans to move the remainder of the Ruidoso Downs meeting to Albuquerque. “There was never any hesitation that we had to make it work,” Blanchard recalled Sunday in his suite at The Downs at Albuquerque. “It had to be done. We had good relations, obviously, between Albuquerque and Ruidoso. We had to figure it out.” The discussion was the start of a rapid change of events that led to the start of the Ruidoso at Albuquerque meeting on July 25. “What I think is amazing is that we showed we can do this between that Sunday and race that following Friday,” Blanchard said. “That was an amazing task.” The Ruidoso at Albuquerque season ended Monday with a blockbuster card highlighted by the $3 million All American Futurity, the $1.04 million All American Derby, and two other six-figure stakes for Quarter Horses. :: Subscribe to the DRF Post Time Email Newsletter: Get the news you need to play today's races!  The All American Futurity, the most famous Quarter Horse race, was held away from Ruidoso for the first time. “Paul saved our life,” Trotter said Sunday. With the end of the Ruidoso at Albuquerque meeting, New Mexico racing completed its most chaotic summer since the peak of the coronavirus outbreak in 2020 when races were run without ontrack fans. The Downs at Albuquerque was scheduled to begin its late summer-fall meeting last weekend. Instead, the season begins Thursday and continues through Oct. 27. The racing highlights include the $200,000 Downs at Albuquerque Handicap at 1 1/8 miles on Oct. 19 for Thoroughbreds. The leading Quarter Horse races include the $1.2 million-estimated New Mexico State Fair Futurity on Oct. 13 and the American Quarter Horse Association Challenge Championship program on Oct. 26, which has five six-figure stakes. For Ruidoso officials, a daunting job is under way, working with government agencies and the community to recover from the floods. Trotter, for one, is planning to resume racing at Ruidoso Downs in late May. “We’re starting on Memorial Day” weekend, he said Sunday. Ruidoso Downs’s racetrack was severely damaged by a series of floods in late June and early July caused by runoff from local mountains scarred by wildfires in June. More than 25,000 acres burned in the vicinity of the picturesque community, with 1,500 homes lost to fire. The subsequent floods caused by seasonal monsoon conditions led to further damage to 200 homes, according to New Mexico media reports. Ruidoso rearranged its racing schedule several times in late June and early July because of the fires and floods before the worst flash flood occurred July 20. The normally tranquil Rui Ruidoso runs through the infield with bridges that traverse the turns. The racetrack is downstream from the affected fire area. Runoff of mud, water, and debris from the burned hillside flowed through the village of Ruidoso and was of such volume that it could not flow under the bridge on the first turn. The runoff spilled over the riverbank and onto the first turn and a portion of the backstretch of the track. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. The flash flood on July 20 was so intense that the flow not only covered the first turn and backstretch, but for the first time damaged the homestretch and inundated the infield jockeys’ room with feet of mud. The meeting was abandoned the following day. “I don’t know [how] they handled it so well,” Blanchard said. “I would probably have been upside down. Johnny was very pragmatic about it and no nonsense about it. We had to figure our options.” Ruidoso Downs general manager Rick Baugh said Sunday that the transition to Albuquerque was possible through the support of the New Mexico State Racing Commission. “Basically, because of the trust with all of us, they said go do what you have to do to get it done,” Baugh said. Going forward, Ruidoso’s community plans to rebuild, but the threat of flooding remains. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham attended Monday’s races. She recently signed a $100 million relief bill, with much of the funding designed to aid recovery in the Ruidoso area. Funding will be devoted to issues such as wastewater, roads, pipelines, clearing debris, and water quality, Grisham said. “Now we’ll have to work together to rebuild the entire community,” Grisham said on Monday in a paddock interview with Daily Racing Form. She noted that fires have devastated other regions of the state since she took office in 2018, and not just in communities with regionally important racetracks. “I’ve seen this before and I hate it,” she said. “It’s a long haul for rebuilding. It’s not just stopping the fires, it’s cleaning out the debris and rebuilding. It is decades worth of effort to make sure the community can rebound for the long haul and we can mitigate these risks. “We are going to rebuild Ruidoso.” Moving racing upstate through the late summer led to a decline in tourism for the Ruidoso area. Trotter and Baugh said some local businesses have reported declines in revenue of 30 percent to 50 percent. To some extent, tourism in Albuquerque was a beneficiary, with added interest in the town’s racetrack. Blanchard, who has various business holdings, including real estate and a chain of health clubs in New Mexico, bought an interest in The Downs at Albuquerque in the late 1990s. The track has changed significantly under his direction. The grandstand was partially torn down and remodeled and is now a third of its former size. A slot machine casino that was part of the grandstand is now in a free-standing building a quarter-mile south of the racetrack. The track could have used a larger facility on Monday, a day in which box seats and turf club tables were long ago sold out. The apron was packed. :: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances – the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures The Downs at Albuquerque reported all-sources handle of more than $2.17 million, compared to $2.32 million at Ruidoso Downs on the corresponding day in 2023. Albuquerque had an ontrack handle of $573,862, less than the $725,796 bet at Ruidoso Downs on Labor Day in 2023. Neither track charges for general admission, but Albuquerque did announce attendance of 10,865. Ruidoso did not announce an attendance figure for its 2023 Labor Day program. At least for this year, the All American Futurity had come to Albuquerque and the presence of the race drew a crowd. “I’ve owned this track for 25 years,” Blanchard said. “Never once did I think that would take place.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.