Judge allows Tucumcari racino case to proceed

An Albuquerque district judge last week rejected arguments by the New Mexico Racing Commission to dismiss a lawsuit by Coronado Partners, setting up a legal showdown this spring whether to issue a sixth and final license to build a horse-racing track and casino in Tucumcari.

District Judge Nancy Franchini’s three-page ruling on Jan. 23 to deny a motion to dismiss and allow the lawsuit to proceed was expected.

Franchini had signaled during a telephone hearing in December she would allow the appeal by Coronado to contest the commission’s rejection of the racing-license application for the Tucumcari “racino.” She said at the time the commission’s legal arguments to dismiss the lawsuit were insufficient.

In her ruling last week, Franchini rejected the commission’s arguments that its rejection of Coronado’s application was final and could not be appealed.

“What they were trying to do was kick us out and not let us go forward with the next steps,” Coronado lawyer and principal Warren Frost of Logan said Wednesday of the commission’s arguments. “The judge said, ‘No, we’re going to follow through.’”

Richard Bustamante, the commission’s legal counsel, stated in an email to the Quay County Sun on Wednesday he was confident the agency eventually will prevail in court.

“Respectfully, the NMRC has confidence Coronado will not succeed in its efforts to simply have the district court order the NMRC to grant it the license,” he wrote. “It is not hyperbole to state that an incorrect decision on the issuance of a sixth license, whether by the NMRC or by order of a district court judge, will have negative and devastating impacts to the state of the current industry in New Mexico.”

The racing commission now has 15 days to submit to the court all of the Coronado documents as part of its original and updated racing license application.

Within 30 days after those documents are submitted, Coronado is required to file a brief, arguing why it should be awarded a racing license.

After that, the commission can file a brief, arguing why Coronado shouldn’t receive the license.

Franchini then would schedule a hearing and make a decision.

Coronado Partners’ lawsuit, filed in late 2021, initially sought to prod the racing commission to issue a decision on the application. The commission, which was reorganized in 2019, had refused to make a decision on a sixth license after months of public hearings in 2018.

Coronado is proposing a racino on Tucumcari’s east side that would employ at least 500 people and generate up to $55 million in revenue by 2025.

Franchini in June granted Coronado’s request for a writ of mandamus against the commission and ordered it to make a decision on the Tucumcari application. A writ of mandamus compels another entity to perform its official duties.

In October after Franchini’s writ of mandamus ruling, the racing commission unanimously denied Coronado’s application.

Commission Chairman Sam Bregman said during the commission’s meeting that after reviewing the application and some documents associated with it, he was inclined to reject it.

“At this time, I don’t believe it is in the public interest or health of the industry to grant this license,” Bregman said.

Bregman said New Mexico’s horse racing industry had seen declines in the number of horses and races in the years since the commission had declined to issue a sixth license.

“I don’t believe the industry is healthy enough to support a sixth license,” he said. “The industry has only gotten tougher.”

After that meeting, Frost vowed to bring the matter back to court and ask Franchini to reverse the commission’s decision.

Bregman in early January stepped down from the commission after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham named him district attorney of the 2nd Judicial District in Bernalillo County. Vice Chairman David “Hossie” Sanchez has stepped into Bregman’s chairman role on the commission.