Group has plans to purchase Ruidoso Downs
A group of five Quarter Horse owners and breeders from Texas and California have signed a letter of intent to purchase Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico from longtime owner R.D. Hubbard, according to a statement released Monday.
Narcisco Flores, Gary McKinney, Stan Sigman, and Johnny Trotter, all from Texas, and John Andreini of California, are expected to become the new owners of the famous Quarter Horse track and the Ruidoso Horse Sale Company later this year.
The deal is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2017, Sigman said in the statement. Terms were not disclosed. Ruidoso will run its 2017 meeting from May 26 to Sept. 4.
The new partners met over the weekend in Oklahoma City to finalize plans, with Sigman elected as chairman.
“We are about to start our due diligence, and in due time we will start the process of gaining regulatory approval,” Sigman said in the statement.
Hubbard, who controlled Hollywood Park from 1991 to 1999, purchased Ruidoso Downs in 1988 with Los Alamitos owner Ed Allred, and later purchased Allred’s interest. Under Hubbard’s direction, Ruidoso Downs’s business grew with the addition of slot machine revenue at New Mexico tracks.
The track’s signature races – the All American Futurity and All American Derby for Quarter Horses - were worth $3 million and $2.4 million in 2016.
Hubbard said that after the sale he plans to remain involved in racing as an owner and breeder.
The track’s new owners have extensive backgrounds in Quarter Horse racing.
Flores has raced stakes winners in Louisiana and Texas. McKinney’s family owns Lazy E Ranch in Oklahoma and races as Reliance Ranches. Sigman owns a ranch in Hondo, Texas, that focuses on racing, roping and barrel racing Quarter Horses.
Trotter is a former president of the American Quarter Horse Association and has owned champions in the past decade. Andreini is a prominent owner and breeder in California and a member of the board of directors of the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association.
