Texas Racing Commission has rescinded previously approved live race dates for July 6, 7, 8, 13, and 14, for Retama Park.

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AUSTIN, TX–JULY 5, 2023–The Executive Director of the Texas Racing Commission has rescinded previously approved live race dates for July 6, 7, 8, 13, and 14, for Retama Park, a Class 1 horse racetrack, in Selma, near San Antonio.

On Friday, June 29, Retama Park faced a critical power outage, resulting in the park’s cancellation of evening horse races, as well as races scheduled for the following day. The power outage brought to light significant challenges Retama has been confronting to comply with the Texas Racing Act and Texas Rules of Racing.

“Unfortunately, today, I had to take the extraordinary step of initiating an enforcement action against Retama Park for failing to address numerous deficiencies noting where the track was not in compliance with the Racing Act and Rules of Racing in Texas,” said Amy F. Cook, Executive Director of the Texas Racing Commission.

Last Saturday, following the power outage, Cook sent Retama’s management a notice of unsafe conditions and a list of matters to address before they resumed live racing. To date, the Texas Racing Commission yet to receive substantial documentation of Retama’s effort to address these concerns, yet Retama continued to communicate with horsemen and the public that live racing would resume.

“Retama’s failure to address these matters in a timely manner, while communicating with industry that racing will resume tomorrow is detrimental to the best interests of the public and the sport of horse racing,” Cook said.

This is not the first time Retama’s management has come under commission scrutiny.

“Concerns with Retama Park have persisted since the opening night of last year’s Quarter Horse meet,” Cook said. “I have received numerous communications and complaints from horsemen about Retama’s failure to meet basic standards expected of Class 1 horse tracks.”

“This agency has spent significant time for nearly a year to encourage them to address the numerous challenges and are hopeful they will be able to overcome them quickly to resume live racing in the weeks ahead,” Cook said.

The Texas Racing Commission is charged with regulating and supervising pari-mutuel racing pursuant to the Texas Racing Act. The Commission is composed of nine members, seven of whom are appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate, and the Commissioner of Agriculture and Chair of the Public Safety Commission serve as ex officio members.