The Sonoita Fairgrounds will be quiet this year on the first Saturday in May. Breaking with a tradition that started in 1915, the Santa Cruz County Fair and Rodeo Association Board voted on March 19 to cancel the 2024 Sonoita Races, which in recent years have been held at the same time as the running of the Kentucky Derby.
The financial burden of putting on the event, the lack of continued state funding to support racing, the cancellation of racing at Rillito Park in Tucson and the demise of county racing in Arizona all played into the Board’s decision.
“We can’t race if no one else does,” Board Treasurer Tiffany George said. “It’s driven out bigger players than us.”
Turf Paradise, which is not part of county racing, is the only track in the state with racing.
In the past, the Sonoita Races were one stop on a thriving county race circuit in Arizona, but recent years have seen the number of county races decline. Last year, only Douglas, Cochise County, and Sonoita held race meets. This year, there is no county racing in the state. In past years Sonoita has also been able to attract horses that had been racing at Rillito Park in Tucson, but Rillito ran into difficulties and has canceled its 2024 season.
“We certainly had a good time running here at Sonoita,” Richard Collins, of Sonoita, said. “We had some of the best horses here.”
Collins and his wife, Diane, were active in quarter horse racing in Arizona for 20 years up until 2008. Their horse, Rockys Lil Gal, was named Champion two-year-old filly in 1992, and Champion Mare in 1993.
“In the years we were involved in it, there was a strong county circuit, a strong quarter horse racing association, a strong quarter horse breeders association and a strong State racing department, and that’s all pretty much gone,” Collins said. “It started to fall apart in the early 2000s. The Indian gaming became a big thing, and it pulled a lot of the betting public away from horse races. The breeders and the trainers moved to New Mexico where they allow slot machines on the tracks. There was a way to finance horse racing.”
Nationally, the sport of racing has been declining in popularity. In a 2021 New Yorker article, William Finnegan wrote, “In the past two decades, the overall national betting handle at racetracks has fallen by nearly 50 percent. Dozens of tracks have closed. Racing is still a $15 billion industry, but the number of races and the size of the thoroughbred-foal crop are less than half what they were in 1990.”
Along with the lack of available horses, the decision by the State not to fund county racing made the decision to cancel this year’s meet almost inevitable. Even with the $40,000 in state funding that Sonoita received last year, the Fairgrounds lost money on the weekend of racing.
“It is a financial burden,” George said. “We can’t take the loss, we’re just too small.”
“It was a loss last year,” Fairgrounds Manager Lacy Beyer said. “The crowds were exactly the same, but everything expense-wise had gone up. The biggest expense was the company that does everything electronic—the betting machines, the simulcast. Their price doubled to $13,400. We have to pay purses, the official photographer, the trumpeter, the clerk of scales, the racing secretary, gate crew, ticket sellers, grounds crew, vet, state officials, announcer and the race program. Our insurance went up. It was close to 50 separate contracts to put on two days of racing.”
With the simulcast of the Derby, the event always attracted large crowds of racing fans, many decked out in fancy hats and sipping on mint juleps while enjoying the excitement of live racing and watching, and betting on, the Derby on wide screen TVs.
Beyer would like to see a new community event keep some of these Derby traditions alive.
“I really hope for a Derby party with the hat contest and food and music and showing the derby,” she said. She wasn’t sure how this type of event would work. “It’s new and fresh to us, so we’re still trying to figure it out.”
“It really hits home. It hurts the small businesses,” Beyer added. Restaurants, stores, wineries, and local lodging all benefited from the racing weekend.
But increased activity at the Fairgrounds, including events like the Labor Day Rodeo, junior rodeos, livestock shows, barrel races, and cutting and reining events, have brought new business to the area.
“Junior rodeo has become huge for the Fairgrounds and the town,” Beyer said. Parents camping for the weekend at the Fairgrounds have scheduled wine tours, many families are staying at local B and Bs, and eating at local restaurants.
Still, there is a feeling of loss surrounding the cancellation of racing. When asked what she would miss the most about the races, George said, “The literal impact as the ground shakes as they come to the finish line. You feel it. They are such amazing athletes. I love horse racing. I’m sad.”
“I’m going to miss the trumpet the most, the excitement it brings, the tradition of that,” Beyer said. “He does that, and everybody stops and listens. And the cheering of the crowd as the horses come to the finish line, I’m going to miss that.
“That’s what’s hard about not having it,” she added. “It’s hanging over us because we don’t want to be the ones who stopped it.”