The $3 million All American Futurity for Quarter Horses will be run at The Downs at Albuquerque for the second consecutive year on Labor Day after a massive flood decimated the Ruidoso Downs racetrack in southern New Mexico on Tuesday, Ruidoso Downs track owner Johnny Trotter said on Thursday.
Tuesday’s flood has forced the cancellation of racing at Ruidoso Downs for the remainder of the summer.
Last year, the final six weeks of the Ruidoso Downs meeting were held in Albuquerque. This year, there will be a limited schedule, with only three days of racing scheduled on Aug. 4-6 to conduct time trials for the All American Futurity, All American Derby, and All American Oaks. The finals of those races will be run on Sept. 1.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Ruidoso Downs racing surface, infield, and part of its stable area were severely damaged by a devastating flood from runoff caused by a massive rainstorm that struck mountains near the track.
The flood was so severe that the racing surface and infield were covered in water. The single-story jockey’s room, located on the infield, was flooded briefly to its roof line. Several barns at a lower elevation in the sprawling stable area were flooded, forcing those horses to be evacuated to a sales pavilion at a higher elevation on the backstretch.
Tuesday’s flood was caused by a monsoonal storm that saw approximately two to three inches of rainfall in a short period of time in early afternoon over areas badly burned in a massive wildfire in June 2024. The rainfall caused the normally tranquil Rio Ruidoso to crest at a record 20.2 feet, higher than the previous record of 15.8 feet set last year. The Rio Ruidoso runs through the track’s infield under two bridges on the turns.
Last July, the river flooded the track so severely that water and mud covered the backstretch chute and first turn and flowed into the infield, damaging the winner’s circle, paddock, and jockey’s room. Tuesday's flood was considerably worse and caused significant damage to property in the village of Ruidoso, to the immediate northwest of the racetrack. Village officials announced on Tuesday evening that an adult male and two children died in the flood.
Ruidoso Downs owner Johnny Trotter said in an interview on Thursday afternoon that he and track officials met with government officials, including New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, on Thursday morning to discuss Tuesday’s flood. Racing is scheduled to resume at Ruidoso Downs in 2026, Trotter insisted.
“We’re confident we’ll have racing,” he said.
The track’s infield underwent significant renovations in the last year to improve the flow of water following storms, including the installation of three massive culverts. The section of the infield where the Rio Ruidoso flows through the property was dredged and widened.
In recent weeks, the renovations helped the track avoid flooding after several major rainstorms. Tuesday’s storm was too severe. Videos on social media showed fast-moving water flowing through the stable area and of horses standing in water in their stalls. Trotter said on Thursday that track officials will meet with engineers in August to discuss additional ways to avoid flooding.
Ruidoso Downs was in the midst of a Quarter Horse-only meeting that began on May 23 and was scheduled through Sept. 1. No overnight races scheduled at Ruidoso Downs in the coming weeks will be run at Albuquerque, Trotter said. The All American Futurity trials will be run on Aug. 4-5, while trials for the All American Derby and All American Oaks will be held on Aug. 6.
This weekend, Ruidoso Downs was scheduled to host five stakes in the Rainbow series, with purses ranging from $100,000 to $1 million. Horses qualified for those races through time trials held June 27-29. The prize money will be equally redistributed among the qualifiers, Trotter said. The same distribution format will be utilized for qualifiers to two stakes for New Mexico-breds scheduled for July 19-20 – the Zia Derby and Zia Futurity.
The All American trials were originally scheduled for Aug. 8-10 at Ruidoso Downs to allow spacing after the Rainbow series. The revised schedule for the All American series leaves a longer-than-normal gap between the trials and finals. In recent years, trials for those races have been run in the second or third week of August. This year, there will be 26 to 28 days between races.
The stable area in Albuquerque is currently open in anticipation of the track’s late summer and fall Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred meeting on Aug. 28. Some stables currently based at Ruidoso are expected to relocate to Albuquerque soon, while others will be sent to tracks in other states, notably California, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Ruidoso Downs will host some horse-related events in the coming weeks. The Ruidoso Hall of Fame will hold its induction dinner on Aug. 7, followed by the New Mexico-bred yearling sales on Aug. 8-9. A dinner party honoring qualifiers for the All American will be held on Aug. 28, followed by the All American select yearling sale on Aug. 29-30.
The yearling sales were held in Ruidoso last year after racing was moved to Albuquerque.
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