Can you imagine this area without Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino? It employs 600 people, most of them from El Paso. It draws owners, trainers and racing fans to local hotels, motels, restaurants and farms. And oh, what a great contributor it has been to charities and other endeavors.
United Blood Services is one of Sunland’s best known benefactors but others include UTEP, New Mexico State, the Tennis West Women’s Satellite Tournament, Gadsden and Santa Teresa schools, Ronald McDonald House, YMCA, the Knights of Columbus, Muscular Dystrophy, Las Cruces Symphony, Dona Ana Community College, First Tee of Greater El Paso, Special Olympics, Sunland Park Firefighters, Fred Reynolds Youth Basketball…
I could go on and on but I’m out of breath. I found a total of 57 donations Sunland made this past year alone.
IT’S NOT AN exaggeration to say that there might not be a Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino today except for Harold Payne.
He began working at Sunland Park Racetrack when there was no casino in 1973. He worked his way up to general manager in 1993 and held the track together through some very hard times. Purses had fallen to as low as $500 a race which was divided among the top finishers. It was hardly enough for an owner to pay a vet bill. Owners and trainers began leaving Sunland in droves. There was real danger the track would close.
But Payne learned that New Mexico had passed a bill that casinos would be allowed at racetracks if they shared the revenue with horse racing. That was Payne’s biggest talking point with owners and trainers. He begged, he pleaded, he cajoled. He told them that if a casino was built purses would soar to unimaginable heights. Enough of them stayed to keep the track going.
AND IT HAPPENED. Stan Fulton bought out some of his partners in the casino business and picked Sunland Park Racetrack as his site.
Payne oversaw the construction and the incredible boom the track was to experience.
And he took the Sunland Park Derby, which had been just another race on the schedule, renamed it plainly the Sunland Derby, increased the purse to the present $800,000, saw it graded and made it a stepping stone to the Kentucky Derby.
Another of his outstanding feats was getting Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino accredited by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) two years ago. It was re-accredited this year. Sunland now ranks in such high class company as Aqueduct Racetrack, Arlington Park, Belmont Park, Betfair Hollywood Park, Calder and other major tracks.
PAYNE, WHO WILL hand over the reins to Rick Baugh, former general manager at Ruidoso Downs and Zia Park, on Monday, is quick to spread credit for his success. “I have been very fortunate to have been associated with track owners and leaders of the horsemen’s groups that would work together for a common goal,” he says.
Nevertheless, he was the leader of it all. Payne spent 20 years with immense daily pressure as manager while building Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino to its present stature.
Now he plans to take life easy for a while He plans to do some traveling to places like Colorado and Las Vegas with his wife Kim visiting family and friends and spend more time with his two sons, Brian, 29, and Mike, 34.
He doesn’t rule out working again some day, maybe even in racing. But it won’t be as a manager. “Maybe I can find something with less pressure,” he says.
IT’S HARD to imagine Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino without Harold Payne.
There have been more than a few tears shed since he announced his retirement. But we all wish him well. How can we not? He did so much for Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino, so much for racing and so much for people in the El Paso area that he leaves an unforgettable legacy.
Vaya con Dios, Harold.