NM Asst. Attorney General Opposes NMHA in Funding Fight

In an opinion issued June 23 by Sally Malave, assistant attorney general in New Mexico, the state law office concluded the New Mexico Horsemen's Association has no "apparent legal authority to refuse to transfer gaming funds it holds to racetrack associations as required by the commission's rules."

The four-page memo, distributed to media outlets by the New Mexico Racing Commission, further indicated that in her view the gaming funds in question do not constitute public funds and the "NMHA is not a 'depository of public funds.'" 

Last summer, Sam Bregman, chairman of the NMRC, told BloodHorse that the NMHA was violating that law "by taking 1% of all purse money and giving it to themselves as an association. That money should be going to the individual purses. They have been doing it for some time, but that doesn't make it right."

In February, the NMHA, which represents about 4,000 Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse horsemen in New Mexico, added to ongoing legal action against the regulator by filing an ethics complaint. The complaint alleged that the NMRC unlawfully diverted purses to track expenses and retaliated against the NMHA in an effort to defund the organization.

Malave wrote that as to whether gaming funds are "public funds" as contemplated by the Audit Act, "we believe that question and whether the NMHA is a depository of public funds may be more appropriately directed to and addressed by the Office of the State Auditor."