Chairman: No conflict of interest in racino application

Official has owned horses with partners in company competing for contract

The chairman of the New Mexico Racing Commission has owned racehorses with two partners in a company that is competing before the commission for a license for the state’s sixth racetrack and slot machine casino.

According to a national database of racehorse ownership, Ray Willis, a Roswell oilman who has been on the Racing Commission since 2006, has owned horses with Shaun Hubbard and Johnny Cope, investors in a company proposing a track and casino in the Clovis area.

Willis and his wife also own Rafter W Stables, a breeding farm in Roswell, which is listed by Equibase, a supplier of racing information, as an owner of horses with Cope, a well-known Hobbs businessman.

Rafter W Stables and Cope are part owners of Hotstepper, the gelding that won the $1.2 million All American Derby last month at Ruidoso Downs. The other owners of the horse are R.D. Hubbard, a grandfather of Shaun Hubbard and former longtime owner of Ruidoso Downs, and Henry “Butch” Southway, who has headed a highway construction company.

As head of the Racing Commission, Willis has been overseeing the commission’s solicitation and review of applications for the new track and casino. He also is a member of the state Gaming Control Board, which regulates slot machines at track casinos.

The business ties between Willis and Shaun Hubbard and Cope are significant because of a potential or perceived conflict of interest when it comes to Willis’ role in selecting the winner from the companies seeking the lucrative license for the new track and casino.

Willis in a recent interview said he doesn’t “have a conflict at all.”

He said he may have owned horses with Shaun Hubbard years ago but no longer does. Through Rafter W Stables, he said, he owns three horses with Cope, R.D. Hubbard and Southway.

“The whole world knows it,” Willis said of the ownership team for Hotstepper. “You won’t be the first to advertise it.”

He said his ownership of horses with Cope didn’t present a conflict of interest with his work at the Racing Commission.

“I have been able to rule as a regulator on many, many people who were my friends and my neighbors,” said Willis, who added he has been in the horseracing business for 35 years.

“I have no real business with Cope,” he said. “We own part of a horse. I make no decisions on the horse. … I see Cope probably twice a year at the racetrack. That’s it. I have no other conversations with him. We say hello. That’s it.”

Willis is a gubernatorial appointee, and Gov. Susana Martinez’s code of conduct for executive branch officers says: “Full disclosure of real or potential conflicts of interest shall be a guiding principle for determining appropriate conduct.”

At stake before the Racing Commission is not only a license for racing horses, but also a license for a slot machine casino that will generate hundreds of millions of dollars over its lifetime for its owner.

Clovis Racetrack and Casino is one of three groups that filed applications with the Racing Commission to build a track and casino in the Clovis area. There also are applications for tracks in Tucumcari and Lordsburg.

Shaun Hubbard is the majority owner in Clovis Racetrack and Casino, and Cope is one of three minority owners in the company.

Hubbard was president and general manager of Ruidoso Downs Race Track & Casino prior to its sale by R.D. Hubbard last year.

The Racing Commission is holding hearings this week in Tucumcari and Clovis on the proposed tracks in those communities and has previously visited Lordsburg. The commission is moving to award the track license before Martinez leaves office at the end of the year; Clovis Racetrack and Casino is considered among the favorites to get the license.

The company is represented by Albuquerque lawyer Robert Doughty III, who has worked as a lawyer for the Martinez administration and is a Martinez appointee to the University of New Mexico Board of Regents.

Doughty also previously served as a Martinez appointee with Willis on the Racing Commission.

R.D. Hubbard, his wife and Hubbard companies have been major campaign contributors to Martinez.

Cope, who made a fortune in oil field-related businesses, served as chairman of the state Transportation Commission under Gov. Bill Richardson.

Other applicants for the track and casino license also have political ties to Martinez, although she has pledged the selection process won’t be politicized.

Willis said he is unsure if the Racing Commission will issue the sixth license before Jan. 1, when the next governor will have the option of replacing all the commissioners and continuing, ending or restarting the selection process for a new track and casino.

First, Willis said, the Racing Commission has to decide whether a sixth track is feasible. The commission is in the process of issuing a contract for a feasibility study sought by four of the five existing tracks. Those tracks have cited concerns about the impact of a new track on their operations and the racing industry as a whole.

The state’s agreements with American Indian tribes that operate casinos provide for a maximum of six tracks. In exchange for limiting off-reservation gaming, the state receives a share of the tribes’ take from their slot machines.