End of an Era: Triple Crown’s Departure Deepens Tourism Crisis From Ruidoso to Alamogordo

RUIDOSO DOWNS, N.M. — September 4, 2026 — For 67 years, Labor Day in the Sacramento Mountains meant one thing: the thunder of quarter horses down the track at Ruidoso Downs, chasing the richest purse in the sport. Next year, that thunder moves to Texas — and with it goes the economic heartbeat of a region stretching from the Hondo Valley through Tularosa and down to Alamogordo.

Ruidoso Downs Race Track General Manager Rick Baugh announced Thursday that track owners Johnny and Jana Trotter have agreed on a framework with Global Gaming Solutions to relocate the Quarter Horse Racing Triple Crown Series — the $1 million Ruidoso Futurity, the $1 million Rainbow Futurity and the $3 million All American Futurity — along with the All-American Super Select Sale and the Ruidoso Downs Hall of Fame to Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, beginning in 2027. The parties expect to finalize the agreement within weeks.

“This was not an easy decision, but we believe it is the right one,” Baugh said in a statement, citing the fires and floods of recent years as the catalyst for the move.

A Region Already Bleeding

The announcement lands on a region that has absorbed blow after blow since June 2024, when the South Fork and Salt fires burned roughly 17,000 acres and destroyed some 1,400 structures in and around the village of Ruidoso. The burn scars turned the mountainsides into runoff chutes, and the monsoon seasons of 2024 and 2025 brought repeated, destructive flash flooding. A July 2025 flood killed three people and sent the Rio Ruidoso surging past 20 feet — roughly five feet above the previous year’s high.

The racetrack, which sits along the river, sustained heavy damage. Officials canceled live racing at the facility and moved the meets to Albuquerque — first in 2024, then again for the entire 49-day 2026 season, including this year’s All American Futurity, scheduled for September 7 at The Downs at Albuquerque.

What was framed as a temporary relocation now becomes permanent for the track’s marquee institutions.

The Numbers Behind the Loss

The scale of the economic wound is hard to overstate for communities this size. Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford has estimated the track generates $160 million to $180 million a year in revenue for the area — an enormous figure for a village of roughly 8,000 residents and its even smaller neighbor, the City of Ruidoso Downs, where more than a quarter of the workforce is employed in arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation and food service.

With the track dark this summer for a third year, Crawford has projected small businesses could see revenue drop 35 to 40 percent at the height of tourist season. The losses concentrate not just on race weekends but on weekdays, when owners, trainers, grooms and dedicated fans historically settled in for stays of three to four weeks at a time — filling cabins, RV parks, restaurants and shops in Midtown.

“It’s been kind of the lifeblood for the entire community,” Ruidoso Downs Mayor Carroll Scott told KRQE News after Thursday’s announcement, adding that the full impact on the surrounding Lincoln County communities remains unknown.

Ripples Down U.S. 70: Tularosa and Alamogordo

The pain does not stop at the Lincoln County line. Racing season has long spilled visitor dollars down U.S. Highway 70 into the Tularosa Basin. Horsemen boarded and trained animals at facilities such as Horseman’s Park in Tularosa, supporting feed stores, veterinary services, barn labor and agricultural suppliers. Race fans and industry workers who couldn’t find — or afford — lodging in Ruidoso routinely booked rooms in Alamogordo and Cloudcroft, fueling hotels, restaurants, gas stations and retail along the corridor.

Those seasonal jobs and that overflow spending were already diminished by three summers without racing. Thursday’s announcement converts a painful interruption into a structural loss. The trainers, the horse trailers, the August trial crowds, the Labor Day pilgrimage — the entire annual rhythm that moved money through Otero and Lincoln counties — now has a new address in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.

What Remains

Ruidoso Downs officials have not detailed what future, if any, live racing has at the New Mexico facility once its signature events depart, though the Billy the Kid Casino and simulcast operations continue. Global Gaming Solutions, which operates Lone Star Park, said it is eager to bring the storied races and sale to North Texas fans.

For the mountain communities, the challenge now shifts to reinvention. The region still holds genuine draws — Ski Apache, the Lincoln National Forest, the Inn of the Mountain Gods, White Sands National Park to the south — and local leaders have pushed hard to market Ruidoso’s recovery. But none of those replaces a single Labor Day weekend that, for generations, put the region on the national map and tens of thousands of visitors in its beds, bars and shops.

The horses will run in 2027. They just won’t run here.

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