Racetrack managers want Raton to get last permit - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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The management of , , , the and have all submittee letters to the New Mexico Racing Commission endorsing a racetracmk and casinoin Raton. The Commission soon will decide where to awarddthe state’s sixth racetrack/casino license in the This will most likel y be the last one in New Mexico for 29 years under the termsx of compacts the state signeed with gaming tribes that included limiting the numbefr of non-tribal casinos here. Raton is competiny with the and another proposesd track in Tucumcari forthe permit. Harolfd Payne, Sunland Park manager, said Raton would attracf horse owners who left New Mexico to race in surrounding stated after the previous Ratonmtrack closed.
Bill Hayles with Zia Park notes that a Raton facility wouldd eliminate any competition with existingb facilities in both gamingand racing. “With an additional 50 race days added to the north and the wisdomk of this Commission in awardingrace dates, we at and Zia Park feel that a completwe racing circuit can be established and maintained in the northerbn part of the state as currentlg exist(s) in the south,” he wrote. There are currentlg 190 days of racin in southern New Mexico and just 103 days in the northern part of the notedDon Cook, president of racin g for the Downs at Albuquerque. Live race days at Ratonh would bring more balanced tothat equation, he wrote.