Fans remain unable to wager on Kentucky Derby at New Mexico racetracks

The way Don Cook sees it, horse racing fans are the ones getting punished.

For the third consecutive year, the Kentucky Derby will not be available for simulcast wagering at racetracks around the state (although the race can still be broadcast). It stems from a back-and-forth dispute between the New Mexico Racing Commission, the state’s regulatory body, and the New Mexico Horsemen’s Association, which represents the state’s owners and trainers.

“I feel sorry for horse racing fans,” Cook, the director of racing at the Downs of Albuquerque, said Friday. “They’re the ones who keep this industry alive. They’re the ones being hurt the most.”

They aren’t the only ones.

With fans being directed to make their wagers through online platforms such as Twin Spires or to go out of state on the biggest horse racing date on the calendar, the money that would come into the racetracks, NMRC and NMHA on Saturday now goes elsewhere.

According to Cook, Albuquerque Downs would normally handle close to $800,000 for the Kentucky Derby. For the third straight year, it won’t. Same with Sunland Park Racetrack & Casino, Zia Park in Hobbs and SunRay Park in Farmington.

Notably, New Mexico native Mike Smith is going for a Derby record as the oldest jockey to win the event. Smith and his horse, So Happy, currently have 6-1 odds, behind only Renegade (5-1).

“I can’t bet it here,” said Mike Chavez, an 85-year-old who has been coming to Albuquerque Downs for 50 years. “But a friend of mine is in (Las) Vegas, so I gave him the money to put down a bet for me. I did that last year, too.”

Chavez is resigned to how much things have changed.

Nestled in a chair by the entrance, Chavez set aside his betting tickets and gazed around the sparsely filled VIP lounge. More striking was how quiet the main hall was.

“Kentucky Derby day, even the day before, it used to be wall-to-wall people,” Chavez said. “And I mean, wall to wall. You couldn’t even move. It was so packed you had to turn sideways just to get around.”

It used to be a yearly event for Chavez and his group of friends. To see the pageantry of the Kentucky Derby. To enjoy the thrills of the biggest horse racing day of the calendar. And, of course, to try to win a little bit of money.

This year — like last and the one before that — he’ll be watching Saturday’s event from home.

No other state currently has such a ban. But NMRC Executive Director Ismael “Izzy” Trejo said New Mexico is also not receiving race signals from Arkansas, Ohio, Louisiana, Iowa, Oklahoma and Arizona, in addition to Kentucky at large.

All the results of the Interstate Horseracing Act of 1978, which regulates horse betting and mandates that a track accepting an off-track “export signal” for simulcast use must have the approval of the host track, the host track’s horsemen’s association, that state’s racing commission and the off-track’s racing commission.

In the Kentucky Derby case, New Mexico needed to receive approval from the NMRC, the Kentucky Racing Commission, the Kentucky Horseman’s Benevolent and Protective Association and Churchill Downs, which hosts the Derby.

The Kentucky HBPA did not give its OK amid the NMRC-NMHA dispute, one that has led to multiple lawsuits.

Multiple messages left for the Kentucky HBPA were not returned.

“For pretty much decades, no one prohibited that,” Trejo said. “That is lost revenue. If Kentucky races don’t come to New Mexico, New Mexicans cannot bet on those races and that costs everyone money, by way of purse money or revenue for the house, which is the racetrack, Churchill Downs. It hurts our place of business, too, because those wagers that are bet on, those race signals from other states, that helps generate revenue for our drug-testing fund.”

According to Trejo, the NMRC’s testing fund is around $400,000. About $300,000 short of where they’d like it to be.

The NMHA, however, sees the NMRC as unwilling to cooperate on several key issues. Mainly, how the NMHA takes its membership fees. In the past, 1% of purses would be deducted for those fees. In 2022, a judge ruled the fees could not be deducted from the purses. Still, the NMHA contends they can. The NMRC claims the opposite.

The groups also disagree on myriad other issues, such as track quality, the associated barns and sanitary conditions, and an alleged attempt by racetracks to decouple racing in favor of a more casino-style gambling.

Most importantly, for the NMRC to recognize the NMHA “as a legitimate organization.”

“It’s really just as simple as everybody sits down and agrees to come together and stop fighting,” NMHA attorney Blair Dunn said. “That’s where we are right now. The Horsemen are making every effort to sit down and we’re even offering to amend the bylaws and change the structure of the Horsemen to meet some of the concerns of the tracks. And even with that out there, the tracks continue to drag their feet.”

The last meeting between the parties was in February.

In the meantime, it will be the third straight year fans will be leaving the in-state racetracks without having a winning or losing Kentucky Derby ticket.

Those like Chavez and 72-year-old Gilbert Grujillo, another decades-old track-attending veteran.

That money will again go elsewhere.

“You want to know my thoughts?” Grujillo asked. “It’s bullshit.”

David Glovach covers New Mexico United and other sports for the Journal. Reach him at dglovach@abqjournal.com or via X @DavidGlovach.