RUIDOSO DOWNS, N.M. – On a recent weekend, there was widespread evidence a normal summer was under way at Ruidoso Downs. With free general admission, the grandstand and box-seat areas were packed with racing fans from not only southern New Mexico but throughout West Texas, tourists escaping a late spring heat wave for cooler temperatures at 7,100 feet. The village of Ruidoso, adjacent to the small town where the racetrack is located, was full of day-trippers. Of course, there was the obligatory mid-afternoon rain shower, which sent temperatures plummeting 15 degrees on one afternoon. For the sport and business of racing at Ruidoso Downs, normalcy has taken on different forms. The track has enjoyed a boost in early season business compared to the early weeks of the 2019 meeting, enough to raise overnight purses for Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds well above the reduced levels of 2020. The 2020 season was completed with limited spectators, and without revenue from the track’s small casino on racetrack property, which did not reopen until late March of this year because of the pandemic. :: Bet the races with confidence on DRF Bets. You're one click away from the only top-rated betting platform fully integrated with exclusive data, analysis, and expert picks. The current race meeting began a week later than expected, on May 28, and continues through Labor Day, when the $3 million All American Futurity will be run at 440 yards. The absence of slot-machine revenue struck the track’s bottom line severely, but an injection of revenue from Sunland Park, outside of El Paso, has helped the purse structure. Ruidoso has such a small casino that it leases some of it machines to casinos at Sunland Park and Zia Park, in southeast New Mexico. The revenue from those sources has been vital. “It made all the difference for the industry,” said Rick Baugh, the general manager at Sunland Park who has joined Ruidoso management team. “I knew if something didn’t happen it would have an adverse effect for Ruidoso Downs.” At the current meeting, a maiden special weight race at 350 yards for Quarter Horses is worth $9,000, nearly the same as a purse of $9,100 in 2019 and above the $8,500 purse last year. A first-condition allowance race for Thoroughbreds is worth $14,400, slightly less than the $14,500 in June 2019 but above the $11,800 prize at this time last year. New Mexico is in the midst of a rebuilding year. In 2019, the Sunland Park meeting was abruptly canceled in March because of the coronavirus pandemic. SunRay Park, in the far northwest of the state, canceled its brief spring meeting. Ruidoso Downs, the Downs at Albuquerque, and Zia Park held racing, but Sunland did not race this past winter or spring, leaving a lengthy void between the end of the Zia Park meeting last December and the start of the SunRay Park meeting in late April. In late April, Ruidoso Downs changed its day-to-day management structure, with Baugh taking a senior management position and Sunland Park executive Ethan Linder holding the role of general manager. Jeff True, who joined Ruidoso Downs in late 2017, is no longer with the company. True joined Ruidoso Downs when the track was sold by R.D. Hubbard to a group led by West Texas rancher Johnny Trotter. In an interview earlier this month, Baugh said Ruidoso Downs has an annual economic impact of $50 million on the surrounding community. The resumption of a steady racing schedule, and higher purses, have helped to stabilize the sport. “When you can up your purses, you get a better product out there, which equates to wagering dollars,” Baugh said. “It’s a snowball effect. I see nothing but straight up for this property.” Racing secretary Jamie Zamora, who has a lifelong history in racing offices at New Mexico tracks and was a successful trainer in the early 2000s, said the Ruidoso Downs stable area has approximately 2,000 stalls, with a dominance of Quarter Horses. “We could have more Thoroughbreds,” she said. Through June 27, Ruidoso Downs averaged 7.43 runners in 43 Thoroughbred races, a slight uptick through the month. Full days of Quarter Horse trials in the early weeks of the season helped boost the overall average field size to 8.73 runners a race. Those figures are lower compared to the corresponding time last year when Thoroughbred races averaged 8.22 runners early in the meeting and the overall figure was 8.94 runners. “The thing we see right now, and it’s not just here in New Mexico, is the pandemic hurt a lot of owners,” Baugh said. “A lot of owners got out of the business. I still see Sunland running as a mixed meet next year.” Sunland Park will reopen for a 51-day meeting on Dec. 26, Baugh said. “We try to run 60 percent Thoroughbreds and 40 percent Quarter Horses,” he said of the composition at Sunland Park. “I think it will be 50-50. We just don’t have the Thoroughbred population. It’s everywhere, all across the country.” Sunland Park’s main Thoroughbred race is the Grade 3 Sunland Park Derby, which has not been run since 2019. The 2020 meeting was a few weeks away when the season was canceled. Baugh said the tentative purse for the 2022 running is $600,000 and that the race will have its customary early spring position in the build-up to the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. Baugh said he has been told the race will remain part of the Kentucky Derby qualifying schedule. “I’ll give Churchill Downs all the credit, they’ve been so good working with us,” Baugh said. “They understand the importance of the western product for the Sunland Park Derby. They’ve said, ‘Don’t worry.’ ” For now, Baugh and Linder have other issues, such as finding sufficient number of mutuel clerks in a difficult labor market and updating a tote board that lacks win, place, and show pool updates. The needed equipment for the tote board is being shipped from China and is not expected to be in place until this Fourth of July weekend, the unofficial kickoff of the summer tourist season in Ruidoso. Through the rest of the summer, the weather is quite warm at lower altitudes and the cool weather in New Mexico gains greater appeal, particularly from Fourth of July through Labor Day. The weather, and the absence of a tourist summer last year, may allow the track to have a successful comeback season this year.