Officials in Pima County say they’re pausing a search for a new operator of a long-standing horse racing track.
Opened in 1943, Rillito Racetrack is a Tucson mainstay that’s heralded as one of the founding sites of modern, formalized Quarter Horse racing.
In a memo this month, county administrator Jan Lesher tells Pima County supervisors that the site operator Rillito Racing has been there since 2014 but has failed to provide audits to the county for the past three years. She says that contract expired at the end of June, and county officials opened up a bidding process to find a new operator.
Lesher says that process was halted this month when county officials discovered one of the bidders may have had advanced notice of the work. She says moreover, the track is in need of significant repairs to get it up to racing standards.
The search is paused for now, and officials say they'll spend 2025 making repairs so the track can resume operations in the future.