New Mexico Horsemen's Association files federal lawsuit against racing commission
The New Mexico Horsemen’s Association has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that the state’s racing commission and its members have violated the civil rights of its members and several state laws that determine distributions from gambling revenues, according to a copy of the suit.
The suit, filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court of New Mexico, names the commission and its five members as defendants. Under the suit, the horsemen’s group is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
In a statement released Tuesday, the chairman of the commission, Sam Bregman, objected to the filing of the suit, saying that it was in response to decisions by the commission that were based on state law.
“We are simply enforcing the law, and they don’t like it,” said Bregman, who is named as a defendant.
The lawsuit accuses the commission of preventing horsemen and their representatives from participating in discussions over several motions approved by the commission in the past year, including a decision prohibiting the horsemen’s group from collecting starter’s fees and 1 percent of winning purses to fund a portion of its operations. A portion of the starter’s fees goes to the maintenance of a political action committee that lobbies for the organization.
The federal lawsuit is the third legal action taken by the horsemen’s organization in the past seven months objecting to the commission’s recent actions. In December, the group filed a state lawsuit to stop a commission order allowing purse money to be used for liability insurance covering jockeys and exercise riders, and in May, it filed a state suit to stop the order prohibiting the collection of the fees and purse money, which the organization called its “revenue stream.”
“The commissioners are deliberately attempting to do away with the horsemen’s association,” said Gary Mitchell, the attorney representing the horsemen’s group. “We are prepared to prove, in court, that this is being done intentionally. They haven’t hesitated to do everything in their power to shut out New Mexico’s horsemen, and ultimately shut down the NMHA.”
Like racetracks in many states with casino gambling, horse racing in New Mexico is heavily subsidized by state-mandated revenues from casinos owned and operated by the tracks. In the suit, the horsemen’s association said that casino revenues provide approximately $30 million a year in purse money.
In response to a request for comment on the lawsuit, the New Mexico Racing Commission on Tuesday provided a document stating that New Mexico law and racing commission rules do not permit the “diversion of gaming tax funds,” in reference to the fees collected by the horsemen’s groups from winning purses. The language was contained in an order directing the racetrack-casinos to stop allowing the collections.
The commission also provided the statement from Bregman, which called the suit “truly unfortunate.”
“The New Mexico Racing Commission has stopped the New Mexico Horsemen’s Association’s gravy train of redirecting purses and the New Mexico Horsemen’s Association have now chosen to spend the horsemen’s money on legal fees,” Bregman said. “New Mexico horse racing will continue to prosper with or without the New Mexico Horsemen’s Association.”
Both sides have said that the money at issue in the various decisions amounts to approximately $700,000 a year.
The horsemen’s organization contends in the suit that the commission has barred representatives of the horsemen’s association from speaking at commission meetings or communicating with any commissioners personally. The suit also states that commissioners have repeatedly mischaracterized the organization’s funds as “purse money.”
The suit also states that the commission has pursued the decisions reducing the association’s funding in order to invoke a state law that would transfer the responsibilities for handing the purse account to a breeders’ organization, in retaliation for the group’s support for proposals that the racetrack-casinos objected to.
“The actions of the commissioners in defunding the horsemen was retaliatory, not in good faith, and meant to cause harm, and in fact, destroy the New Mexico Horsemen’s Association,” the suit states.