What the racing commission wants

CLOVIS — Izzy Trejo doesn't claim to know what's in the minds of the five state racing commissioners listening to racino presentations this week in eastern New Mexico, but he has a few ideas of what they might be after.

"Horse racing comes first and foremost," the New Mexico Racing Commission's executive director told The News in a phone interview. "We regulate horse racing, and our mission statement, I'll read it verbatim..."

Trejo went on to read that statement, verbatim as promised. It's one long sentence, with not a word about slot machines or dining or hotels, but plenty about horses.

The commission exists to provide regulation for the state's pari-mutuel horse racing industry, "in a manner which promotes a climate of economic prosperity for horsemen, horse owners and racetrack management."

While various aspects of the five racino contenders' proposals certainly support and enhance that vision, the first priority from the racing commission is about the horse.

Of course, of course.

"We all know the symbiotic relationship between horse racing and slot machines," Trejo said. "But those are two separate licenses. We're only issuing a racing license; we have no authority to issue a gaming license in this state. But does a racino potentially go along with this? Yes."

The New Mexico Gaming Commission issues the other license, but not until after NMRC makes its own decision. One typically follows the other, too.

"In order to get a gaming license, you must have a racing license already in place. So we certainly do have to put the horse before the cart," Trejo said. "No pun intended."

With that said, commissioners are not visiting the prospect cities just to hear presentations that could be brought to their offices otherwise. It's about site visits and hearing from the public, too.

"It's certainly an opportunity for the community to be heard," Trejo said. "I think they want to hear the people's voices from the community. An important part of this whole process to is to hear from people that are going to be neighbors with this project."

Opportunities for public comment will follow the presentations Thursday in Tucumcari and Friday in Clovis, as they did Sept. 28 in Lordsburg. In the interest of time there will be no Q&A — Trejo said "that is not the intention of those meetings" — but commissioners will have the opportunity to ask questions of the presenters at a later time.

Of the five NMRC commissioners — Chairman Ray Willis, Vice Chair Gayla McCulloch, Leonard Blach, Jerry Cosper and Ken Corazza — Trejo knew that at least Willis and Corazza had been through the racino application process previously.